Lock sound card assignments?

[Alan]

I use multiple sound cards, mostly USB and FireWire, primarily for
data acquisition rather than music. They all work fine, but when I add
or remove one, Windows (XP and Vista machines) reassigns the numbers
associated with them. If I plug in a new sound card, it will assign
that card even to programs running. It requires me to either never
change anything, or go back in and reconfigure program's selection of
cards. Not insurmountable, but annoying.

Is there a way to prevent this from happening. Perhaps a way to lock
the sound card assignments, or even a way to store the desired
configurations and quickly restore them?

 

[Alan]

The input and output channels are identified within Windows by
numbers. Most programs use these, though they may make it look as if
they are using an alpha description. The problem is that Windows
assigns a particular physical card to these numbers through the
enumeration process. Something similar happens with serial ports,
though later versions of windows makes a permanent assignment, even if
the particular port is not currently plugged in.

The sound card assigned numbers depend on what is present during the
boot process. Additionally, if you plug in a USB sound card, or
remove one, Windows will dynamically renumber them. I would like to
freeze the assignments so that I am not constantly having to go in to
the programs and make certain they are looking at the card I want.