general vista joystick devices question

Does Vista change the way the OS deals with joystick devices and specifically how they're presented to games.
XP took a step back from 98SE in that can't even dictate which device is ID#1 etc. making it next to useless if/when one wants to use multipule controllers. Is this half-assed design continued or does it just get worse?
What should happen is the user should be able to create a virtual joystick(s) and assign whatever input he wants to control the virtual devices axis and buttons, e.g. can be made up from any keyboard, mouse, joystick, wheel etc. attached to the system. One should also be able to dictate which underlying hardware uses force feedback etc. etc.
The game doesn't "see" the underlying hardware but just the virtual device(s).
So tiring having to constantly swap, uninstall/reinstall joysticks etc. so a game will "see" what you want it to see and use what you want it to use without going thru hoops trying to get it to work.
Blimy, even MS's own games don't do/use what MS themselves say is possible but screw up just a fast as everyone elses, e.g. try and get FS2004 to use all controllers properly the way you want it to with FF on a specific device etc. etc. and you'll see what I mean.