You can edit the registry to disable it. You may need to re-install the drivers.
Put this in a *.reg file:

1[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\CreativeTech\Emu10kx\Emulation]
2"EnableSB16Emulation"=dword:00000000

To re-enable it, use this:

1[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\CreativeTech\Emu10kx\Emulation]
2"EnableSB16Emulation"=dword:00000001

Thanks for your help DNSDies, although a search on the internet about that registry lead me to believe this registry key belong to the audigy and not the live card (also I think there is a space in CreativeTech).

I made further search on the registry cleaning everything related to sb16. Also the ctsyn.ini and ctsynwdm.ini disabling stuff related to SBE changed nothing but Nothing seem to give. Even "sbeset -c -w1" tell me sb16 emulation is disabled from windows settings, but at each reboot the device is brought back.

No, the registry key is for anything that uses the Emu10k chip.
This includes the Live! AND Audigy line.
I know this because I have an OEM SB Live! card that never installs the SB16 emulation drivers and provides no DOS sound in windows until that registry entry is added manually and the drivers are re-installed.

Try removing the card and associated devices from device manager, changing the registry key (or deleting it) and running the add hardware wizard again.

ElBrunzy, if you don't need VxD and EAX just take kx driver. For 9X I recommend up to 3536 version, for XP 3537+ versions are better. Full SF2 compatibility, best sound/midi routing, reverse front/rear outputs for Live's better Philips DAC using (instead of AC97 DAC) but WDM only and EAX support is absent. IMO best EMU10k drivers without EAX.

@DNSDies: I think why I have a different behavior than your is maybe because I installed many variant and updates of the sblive! drivers before finding one that was working (my main problem actually is that another audio device was being default on windows making crash the creative tools). I understand you use default windows drivers and maybe at that point your registry trick work. At this point I prefer to keep the emulated virtual device disabled.
@PARUS: That's a good idea, I used to think KX where only for legacy devices on modern OS. I used APSLive but I think it only support analog output if you use a mod or a hack and my current receiver plugged to it don't support the digital pcm format the sblive output. I would like to give it a try, but once KX driver are installed, does win98 keep on wanting to install the creative drivers ?

Anyway sad news for me, the EWS64 L card that is hosted on that computer started to act up again. After I tried everything to fix it I could think of, I had the idea to swap the PSU, since that computer is pretty crowded. Unfortunately the PSU I did try, like the evil brother of king Midas, turn everything he touch into brick. Since I don't have any other p3 or better motherboard with ISA, I ordered a 845GV motherboard from china. So, hopefully in 3 to 6 weeks I'll be able to pursue the diagnostic.

Thanks @Parus, finished testing the Kx drivers and they are really nice, I love them. Apparently the 3537 are the last to support win98se but I did not had luck using them (for some reason they wanted ntkernel so maybe they need nt after all) so I followed your suggestion and used the 3536 which work fine. I could not bring SPDIF back to that receiver but the analog output is good enough. I also reverse front/back since you suggest the DAC is of better quality. For some reason I loaded a 113mb soundfound and now it say the ram is used at 129%, I have 256mb of ram on that computer, maybe I should upgrade to 512mb. In the faq they talk about a 32mb maximum while the soundbank editor seem to limit around 100mb... Maybe info rely in the thread.

About the SB Emulation mode it's definitively gone and I do not need to disable it anymore.

ElBrunzy wrote on 2021-01-26, 17:04:

Are they any more elegant way to disable it ? Although I've always find it being an ugly stain in the Device Manager to have disabled device

I often have a disabled or driver-less device or two in Device Manager. A 100% clean Device Manager should never be your goal.