How to change MIDI output device in Windows Vista

**Hayworth** · 15-05-2007

How can I change the MIDI output device in Windows Vista. I cannot see any setup in the volume control box and also tried to find something in Control Panel. But nothing worked out much there. I am to play some midi files in Windows media player via external synth. I hope there are ways to do this in Vista. I had upgraded my system for Windows XP last month.

**Han$naH** · 24-06-2007

I am too trying to find a similar solution for those. I had a new sound card in my Vista system. I am here trying to work with in inbuilt synth which is not great but offer you average support. For making the changes you have to run dosbox. If you cannot find that you can get that from web. You can try the same in CMD also. I usually prefer to use dosbox. Now type mixer /listmidi in that and hit enter. You will find the internal synth listed. If there is any additional midi device installed in your system you will get multiple listing on the screen. To change that you have to edit Windows registry. Type regedit in the Start > Run box. Do not forget to take the backup of your registry before making this changes. You can restore that incase of any errors. Run registry editor and go to this path > HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ActiveMovie\devenum\{4EFE2452-168A-11D1-BC76-00C04FB9453B}\Default MidiOut Device. You have to modify the MidiOutId value to 00000000 or 000000001 as per the listing you got in dosbox. Do not forget to reboot your system.

**mfenemore** · 17-08-2008

I have done everything as shown in this post, but Vista x64 contains an additional setting in:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ActiveMovie\devenum 64-bit

It shows the MIDI output device as "ffffffff"

Also, this directory does not list my MIDI devices.

My MIDI output is still not going to my synth.

So what do I do to fix this in x64?

**Abdulmajid** · 23-06-2009

Thanks for the answer. I was wondering that it would not be possible to do. I have a Yamaha Keyboard that I had attached to my computer. I was having Windows XP and I had upgraded to Vista. The keyboard works nicely on the old OS, but in new the issue lies with external synth. I did the changes to Windows registry making it work proper. I was looking for a much easier way to fix that thing. Because registry edit is a bit complicated sometime.

**fubartunes** · 26-07-2009

have they deleted the option to change default midi out? what a bad move if they have. was in sounds settings - would explain why i cant find it anywhere.

far too complex for me to be messing about with editing reg, and there is no need for it either. thats another negative for vista (along with millions others ive noticed).

surely they still have that option somewhere? very stupid move if they don't have it in this pile of crap they call "best version of windows yet" - that title is still held by xp pro

simple solution to this problem is to downgrade to xp pro as vista is not fully compatible with midi instruments / controllers without reg editing.

stupid gates is getting real numb in his greedy old age

**DesTiny!** · 26-05-2010

Nice solution. But I still wonder why Windows Vista does not has any Plug and Play support for that. Tweaking registry is not at all simple for all. I had seen a number of users got frustrated because of this issue.

**bensbig2000** · 07-03-2012

Great info. I had this problem with midiout id on my vista 64bit and tried exactly:
"when you regedit this value change the button to decimal and put in
00000001 which when saved will look like 0x00000001 (1) "
from an earlier post in my registry and it still didn't work - it was all fffffff then changed to the above - so if it still doesn't work what else could i try?? thanx much - all midi cables work fine and there's no harware issues - I just can't get virtual instruments to play back on my korg trinity - it just stopped working one day - midi in light blinks on hardware but midi out doesn't. even tried a seperate midi to usb cable (midisport uno) and still had the same issue - so I'm pretty sure it's a setting in the computer - and the thing is with vista and the fast track pro is that they have no midi settings control panel at all. stumped here...pllleeeassse heeelllp!!!

**EINSTEIN_007** · 07-03-2012

Originally Posted by bensbig2000

Great info. I had this problem with midiout id on my vista 64bit and tried exactly:
"when you regedit this value change the button to decimal and put in
00000001 which when saved will look like 0x00000001 (1) "
from an earlier post in my registry and it still didn't work - it was all fffffff then changed to the above - so if it still doesn't work what else could i try?? thanx much - all midi cables work fine and there's no harware issues - I just can't get virtual instruments to play back on my korg trinity - it just stopped working one day - midi in light blinks on hardware but midi out doesn't. even tried a seperate midi to usb cable (midisport uno) and still had the same issue - so I'm pretty sure it's a setting in the computer - and the thing is with vista and the fast track pro is that they have no midi settings control panel at all. stumped here...pllleeeassse heeelllp!!!

There is a Vista MIDI Tool that you can download and use to configure the default out device in the options. In fact, the MIDI support is still be there, but unlike on XP where the MIDI output device could be picked from the control panel Vista doesn't appear to provide such an option. Search for it on google and download it.