PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic) Problem with Coolsoft's Virtual Midi Synth program and Win 10 - 20H1

Here is the problem and the temp fix.

https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/forum/thread/880

My own method was to use a batch file to...

1. Backup the problem registry entry once Virtual Midi Synth fixes it's error

Since the driver (VirtualMidiSynth.dll) is removed by Windows every time it boots up...

2. I use a restore batch file in the Startup Folder of Windows to

a) Restore the correct registry entry from the backup made in the 1st step.
b) Use the START: command in the restore batch file to load Virtual Midi Synth each time Widows boots after the driver is reloaded.

It works flawlessly each time.


From the VMS Forum:


"Latest Windows 10 builds (10.0.19033 and newer) keep "uninstalling" VirtualMIDISynth driver registration at each reboot (and also after some time the system is up and running).

Registry key where VirtualMIDISynth registers itself is somehow "reset" at each boot; the effect is that VirtualMIDISynth (and MIDIMapper) are not available anymore to MIDI applications, though they're still installed.

VirtualMIDISynth detects this at its startup and prompts the user for re-installation of the driver but, as said above, this fix won't last for a long time.

Well, this is not an OS bug to fix (by MS) but a new Windows OS "feature" we're forced to manage .

They changed the way Drivers32 registry key is managed by the Plug&Play subsystem.

So they now require (and suppose) VirtualMIDISynth to work as any other Windows driver (WHDL and stuff...).

Packaging it as a driver requires a lot of additional and costly steps: obtain a code-signing certificate, register myself as a driver developer, submit driver binaries to WHDL quality tests, sign binaries and, finally, distribute them.

The most expensive step is the code-signing certificate; it's not a standard certificate but one released from a few CA that Microsoft consider safe for kernel drivers... and it costs a lot of money

BUT... unfortunately VMS is NOT and doesn't need to be a kernel driver (.sys).
It's an User Mode driver (.dll), so it should not really need to be certified, because it won't harm the system at all (even if it contains some bug) and doesn't interact with the kernel.

Still looking for a workaround..."