Thank you!! :) That did it!

I thought I didn't have to change anything, seeing how my joystick was the ONLY peripheral in the control panel — HOWEVER: Even if there's only one — you HAVE to designate it as your "preferred device"!

– open Windows control panel
– click "view devices and printers"
– right-click the joystick
– click "game controller settings"
– in the next window, click the "Advanced..." button
– choose your joystick (in the drop-down list) as your "preferred device"

Done!
Now it works perfectly! Thank you so much!! :)