Microsoft Seems To Be Phasing Out MIDI Facilities

For two months I have been trying to connect my (simple) "Midiplus 61" piano keyboard to my Acer "Travelmate 4150" laptop (under Win XP Home) using one of its USB ports, so as to drive a music program. The keyboard produces a MIDI stream. I must have downloaded 250 Mbytes of so called "USB-MIDI Drivers", some from Acer, some from MSoft, many from individuals who profess to know the solution. Now, in desperation I seek help from my CNET colleagues,I must add that the keyboard works fine when driving through Win 98 on an old machine and the laptop produces excellent Steinway piano sound when running, say, a "Pianoteq" demonstration file.