Solution For "Initializing Midi Engine" Freeze at Startup (Windows)

[nsureit]

I have a Windows 10 laptop, running PT Ultimate 2022.7 with MTRX Studio and one HDX card. Post 2022.7, my PT Ultimate startup would get hung up when "initializing midi engine". It would sit there for three to five minutes before Pro Tools would resolve to open a session. I searched the interwebz of things for a solution, and read dozens of (mostly older) threads here on the DUC. Nothing would work. I finally saw a post on another site that offered this: in Windows, open Device Manager, click on view, show hidden devices; dozens of old, unused or disconnected devices appeared. I looked for any device associated with MIDI that I did not use, like some old controllers I got rid of years ago, and deleted them. I probably zapped about a dozen devices, hoping none was still needed to operate any of my MIDI devices.

It worked! Now the midi initialization takes about eight seconds. Hope this might help some of you with the same issue.