No, I’m not saying to go back and change back if you have something working. I don’t understand why it is working (something else had to have been changed here as well), so guiding you through more changes would not be a good idea.
I mostly just don’t want others to follow the same steps, because they shouldn’t have worked in your case, and definitely will not work in any other case I can think of. They ignored the rest of the info in this thread you replied to, and added potential confusion for others.
(Edit: I see you have updated your post to indicate that. Thanks. That’s my primary concern)
The Windows MIDI Service is responsible for finding all the MIDI devices on the system, and making them available to applications. That’s called “enumeration”. When you turned that off, you should no longer have seen the AKAI device, or any other MIDI port other than maybe a Korg device using their older style driver.
Sorry. You were using terms and tools in your explanation above, so I made the assumption you were familiar with them.
The MIDI Service is, with the Windows install, set to start up the first time an application makes a MIDI call. That’s called “demand start” or “triggered start”. It’s something we have to set up when configuring the service in Windows.
“Services UI” = The services tool (technically a Microsoft Management Console snap-in) you used to disable the Windows MIDI Service
Pete
Microsoft