
Microsoft designed DirectX with the goal of resolving the access issue.

Unfortunately, this had the side effect of making it difficult for games to connect to low-level system characteristics.

When Windows 95 was introduced, Microsoft limited low-level equipment access as a security measure. The setup data might potentially be altered or changed. Prior to Windows, DirectX was available to provide video games with direct access to the motherboard and visual cards. Games may interact with their video cards in a basic way using DirectX. Low-level hardware components, such as sound cards, and memory, may be accessed via DirectX, an API (application programming interface).

