Microsoft shipped several new updates today via the Windows Update system for both XP and Vista. Typically these updates are only sent out on the second Tuesday of each month, which is referred to as Patch Tuesday, but each year Microsoft throws a few curve balls and pushes out updates outside of their schedule.

Back in May we did a comparison of DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 to show graphically what the differences are. The reason why it is important is because Microsoft didn’t make a DirectX 10 that works with Windows XP, so you would have to upgrade to Vista to benefit from it.

Windows Vista ships with DirectX 10 (DX10) which is something a lot of gamers look forward to getting their hands on. Unfortunately for XP users DX10 is only available on the Vista operating system because of changes made in the graphics API as well as the drivers.