Time to answer my own question:
The problem was the Windows new device recognition. Basically, whenever I tried to transfer my new settings to the keyboard, it would start doing it, then Windows came up asking me to insert the driver disk. I kept dismissing that window (cancel) thinking that it didn't need a disk, and besides, I didn't have the disk. Finally, today I just let it do the "automatic" driver find, instead of canceling, and the utilities finished just like they should. So that's good!
I do have a funny side effect, though. After transferring the settings to my keyboard, I immediately got onto this forum to type up my success. Well, before I could finish the first sentence I discovered that the Y and Z keys were reversed in my Dvorak layout. I have had this trouble before, so I wasn't put off too much when it happened. I just went to the surface key editor and reversed the designations of Y and Z. Now everything's working fine.
So, thanks for listening in to my little issues.