Hi Marty,

Please give this knowledge base article a try and let us know how it goes!

I have a similar problem and need to know the solution.  I just updated to 25 from a very old version.   I tried to figure it out from the documentation, but apparently my Garritan instruments did not get loaded.   When I look in the 'Sound Map Priority' box, Garritan is listed first and 'SmartMusic SoftSynth' is listed second.  That's as it should be per the doc.  But, when I go to 'VST Banks & Effects', the only option I'm given is 'SmartMusic Softsynth',  Garritan does not show up as an option.  When I go to 'Reassign Playback Sounds', the dialog box says 'This will alter the document, do you wish to proceed?'.  I select YES, and the message 'The requested virtual instrument plugin could not be found'.

Finally, when I open up the Score Manager dialog box under Window, under device, the only device that shows is 'SmartMusic SoftSynth'.  In the documentation, it says that Garritan is automatically loaded.

I'll grant that I'm not that familiar with Finale's technical configurations, so hopefully someone from Tech Support can show the solution to this situation.  Thanks

I just purchased Finale 26 for Windows 10.

Playback does not work, even when trying "Reassigning Playback Sounds". When attempting to do so, I received a message "Virtual Instrument Plugin unavailable".

I reinstalled Finale & Garritan just in case my initial attempt was somehow, corrupted. However, that was to no avail.

Suggestions?

Check you Audio Driver: MIDI/Audio > Device Setup > Audio Setup

I find that mine was often defaulting from DirectSound to ASIO, which did not work for me.

there is a fix for this if that is what is causing your difficulty.