Windows 10: Enable or Disable a Sound Output Device in Windows

How to: Enable or Disable a Sound Output Device in Windows

How to Enable or Disable a Sound Output Device in Windows


The default audio playback device is the device that Windows uses to output (play) sound.

This can be speakers, headphones, Bluetooth headset, or other audio devices connected or built-in to your computer.

This tutorial will show you different ways on how to enable or disable a sound output device (ex: speakers) on your Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 PC.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Settings (Device properties)
• Option Two: To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Settings (Manage sound devices)
• Option Three: To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Device Manager
• Option Four: To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Playback Devices
• Option Five: To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Registry Editor

OPTION ONE [/i] To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Settings (Device properties)
*note This option is only available in Windows 10.
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon.

2. Click/tap on Sound on the left side, select the sound output device (ex: speakers) under Output on the right side, and click/tap on the Device properties link. (see screenshot below)



3. Check (disable) or uncheck (default - enable) the Disable box for what you want. (see screenshot below)



4. You can now close Settings if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Settings (Manage sound devices)
*note This option is only available in Windows 10.
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon.

2. Click/tap on Sound on the left side, and click/tap on the Manage sound devices link under Output on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on your sound output device (ex: speakers) under Output devices, and click/tap on the Enable (default) or Disable button. (see screenshots below)





4. You can now close Settings if you like.





OPTION THREE [/i] To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Device Manager
*note You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do this option.
1. Open Device Manager.

2. Do step 3 (enable) or step 4 (disable) below for what you want to do.


3. To Enable Sound Output Device
A) Expand open Audio inputs and outputs. (see screenshot below)

B) Right click or press and hold on your sound output device (ex: speakers), click/tap on Enable device, and go to step 5.





4. To Disable Sound Output Device
A) Expand open Audio inputs and outputs. (see screenshot below)

B) Right click or press and hold on your sound output device (ex: speakers), and click/tap on Disable device.



C) Click/tap on Yes to confirm, and go to step 5.



5. When finished, you can close Device Manager if you like.





OPTION FOUR [/i] To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Playback Devices
1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Sound icon.

*note If you like, you can open Run (Win+R), enter the control mmsys.cpl,,0 command into Run, and click/tap on OK to directly open Playback devices.

2. Do step 3 (enable) or step 4 (disable) below for what you want to do.


3. To Enable Sound Output Device
A) In the Playback tab, right click or press and hold on an empty area in the box of playback devices, and make sure you have Show Disabled Devices checked.



B) Right click or press and hold on your sound output device (ex: speakers), click/tap on Enable, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)




4. To Disable Sound Output Device
A) In the Playback tab, right click or press and hold on your sound output device (ex: speakers), click/tap on Disable, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)









OPTION FIVE [/i] To Enable or Disable Sound Output Device in Registry Editor
*note You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do this option.
1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type regedit in Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below step 3)
*Arrow HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render
3. Expand open the Render key in the left pane, and open the Properties subkey of each long number GUID (ex: "{a792f05a-9ef4-45da-842a-2bd2910f96df}") until you find your sound output device (ex: "Digital Audio (S/PDIF)") shown in the right pane. (see screenshot below)



4. In the right pane of the GUID key (ex: "{a792f05a-9ef4-45da-842a-2bd2910f96df}") for your sound output device, double click/tap on the DeviceState DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below)



5. Enter the Value data from the table below for what you want to do, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)




[table][tr][td]Value data[/td] [td]Description[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]1[/td] [td]Enable[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]10000001[/td] [td]Disable[/td] [/tr] [/table]

6. When finished, you can now close Registry Editor if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change Default Sound Output Device in Windows 10
• How to Adjust Volume Level of Individual Devices and Apps in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable the Microphone in Windows
• How to Rename Sound Input or Output Device in Windows 10

:)

 

Disabling Audio input/output (Microphone/Speaker/etc) in Device Manager does not disable device in Sound Control Panel or stop audio...oh my!

In Windows 10 (1803 build 17134.228), I open both "Device Manager" (devmgmt.msc) and the "Sound Control Panel" (mmsys.cpl).

Both Device Manager and the Sound Control Panel show the same audio input/output devices.

ex: "Speakers" and "Microphone".

This is good!

In Device Manager, I disable "Speakers", which continues to show up and has an icon showing it is disabled.

In Sound Control Panel, "Speakers" still shows up and *is not disabled*!

When I play a sound through the [disabled in Device Manager] Speakers, I can still hear the audio!

This is horrible!

In Device Manager, I re-enable "Speakers".

In Sound Control Panel, I disable "Speakers".

In Device Manager, "Speakers" disappears as an Audio output device.

Audio correctly cannot be heard.

This is good!

In summary:

1. Why does disabling "Speakers" in "Device Manager" not stop audio coming out of them?
2. What does disabling "Speakers" in "Device Manager" actually do?
3. Why is disabling Speakers in Device Manager different than disabling Speakers in Sound Control Panel?

Now for the real meat: I am trying to disable/enable the Audio input/output device...

...the way that the Sound Control Panel does...

...but programmatically (PowerShell, C#, C...whatever works).

There are many of examples of how to disable/enable a device that involve "devcon.exe disable/enable", "Get-PnpDevice | Disable/Enable-PnpDevice", and "Get-Device | Disable/Enable-Device".

All of these result in the device being disabled in the Device Manager, and exhibiting the above undesirable behavior; the audio devices still show up in Sound Control Panel and are usable.

I also have tried the Registry hack (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Capture\{GUID} DeviceState=1 or 10000001), but that seems to be a cosmetic hack only and doesn't actually force close any open devices or prevent new opens.

So I'll add another question:

1. How can I programmatically disable/enable and audio device to have the same effect as doing it in Sound Control Panel?

And no; UI automation of the Sound Control Panel is not an acceptable answer.

I am looking for an actual API that can be called in the background, not a horrible UI hack that requires being in the foreground.

Thanks!

Pv

 

Re-enable audio device

Hi,

I would be happy to assist you.

Before we proceed with troubleshooting, I would need little information on the issue.

• Are using speakers / head phones to listen to audio?

If you have disabled the audio device, then you might not see it under the list of playback devices. I would suggest you to follow these steps to make sure you see the disabled devices:

• • 
    Open
    Control panel.
    
  • 
    Click Hardware and Sound and then Click on
    Sounds.
    
  • 
    Under Playback tab, right click on the empty area and make sure
    “Show Disabled Devices” has a check mark on it. If headphones/Speakers are disabled, it will now show up in the list.
    
  • 
    Right click on the device and
    Enable it. Click OK.
    

If the issue still persists, try enabling speakers automatically using steps below.

• 
  Go to Settings> Click on themes> Advance sound settings> right click on the speakers or the audio device youo have connected > click on
  Configure device.
  
• 
  Test the sound level you want, click Next.
  
• 
  And configure the audio devices.
  

Hope this helps you. Do reply if you need further assistance on Windows 10.

Thank you.

 

Vista sound output to two devices

Ive tried to search this up, but so far I haven't found good results.

I have a Sound Blaster X-fi PCI-E and the Radeon 4890 HDMI audio for outputs.
I have them both working separately on the audio devices list on Vista Home Premium.
I FINALLY got screen cloning to work in games, but audio will only output to one or the other.
This depends on what I have set to default.

Is there anyway to get Vista to output all audio to BOTH devices?

Thanks in advance.

 

Sound keeps playing from same output device even after changing default device

After a Windows update last fall I have had issues with switching between my USB headphones and my desktop speakers, and the only way to get the sound output to change is by disabling one or the other. When both devices are enabled I can hear sound when
moving the volume slider or playing a test sound, but if I change source of output in the lower right corner in Windows, nothing happens other than the new output source displaying when clicking the volume button. The sound keeps playing from the previously
selected device until I disable it entirely. Then I have to use Sound Troubleshooter to re-enable it as it disappears from the list of output devices once disabled. I find this very frustrating and I hope someone can help me solving this issue.

 

Realtek crackling sound on Windows 7

Disabling everything but the output device (it's the only output device listed, anyway) yields the same result.