It''s simpler than you would ever thought of.... Basically I just create a new user and give the account admin status, login use that user, and install DX 9 (summer update). For some unknown reason, it worked!! I thought I''d just post up the registry settings as well: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectX SDK] "DX9J3SDK Samples Path"="C:\\DX90SDK\\samples" "DX9J3SDK Doc Path"="C:\\DX90SDK\\Documentation\\directx9" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectX SDK\SampleBrowser] "DXUTILS"=dword:00000001 "VB"=dword:00000001 "CS"=dword:00000001 "CPP"=dword:00000001 Enjoy~