Directplay on Windows 10

There is no danger enabling Direct Play. It is actually built into Win10, but is disabled by default.

What is a mystery is why MS have elected to not have Direct Play enabled by default, as if it does conflict with anything,

that  would be a far more rare occurrence than leaving people who play old games in the dark.

I have had Direct Play enabled since doing the Win10 upgrade mid 2015 will no ill effects what so ever.

MS have apparently attempted to address this with oversight the pop up window that was introduced with the 1709 version update

that offers to 'install' Direct Play when people try to run an old game that requires it, and have not already enabled it manually.

However, it appears that this new option may be what is actually preventing some people from being able to enable Direct Play via

Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off as well,  which was very rarely, if ever, a problem before the 1709 update .

Not being able to enable Direct Play is what this thread is about. Many people seem to have missed that point, including Duke,

who apparently did not read the OP's question, or other peoples answers.

Having Skype enabled seems to be at least one program that will conflict with enabling Direct Play, but apparently once enabled

Direct Play does not conflict with Skype.

I agree this makes the troubleshoot compatibility feature less useful I understand its obsolete but still it was once a feature and gamers(some of us) like old games as well as new ones don't turn into what I hate which is a company that won't support old things just because the "new thing" is out. I dont like sony as much because they did away with backwards compatibility Microsoft obviously Never care except for "certain games" its annoying as hell. Still I'm glad the feature is there it just sucks you made it more difficult to get to.

1. Right click Start
2. Click Programs and Features
3. Click Turn Windows features on or off
4. Make sure there is a check in Legacy Components
5. Click the + to expand
6. Check the box for DirectPlay

Worked for me.

Blitz basic 3d was not started without it.  I got Error 22 Message when trying to run Blitz.exe file.

Thankyou for helping people with this, but unfortunately my laptop cannot finish the action. I understand this is obsolete and all, but I am considering a full system restore incase it is something I did. I ran into the same video the other day but upon trying it, it just wouldn't work for me. Does anyone know DirectPlay will become usable at a later date? Because I don't know how to downgrade my windows to 8.1

Now THIS is a great answer.

Thanks a lot Quark02. But I still have an error 0x80071A90, telling that the function tried to use a name in use by another transaction.

Do you have any idea why ?