Adjust per-program volume
If by “missing from volume mixer” you simply mean that it is not producing sound, then check the actual volume-mixer applet. Starting with Windows Vista, Windows allows you to adjust the volume of each program individually. You may have lowered the volume of Chrome to an inaudible level and forgotten to raise it back up.
You can access the Chrome mixer through the Mixer
link in the master-volume mixer from the audio icon in the notification area (figure 1) or by running (⊞Win+R) the full mixer directly with the command sndvol32
. Make sure that Chrome is making noise (e.g., by playing a music-video on YouTube with the volume cranked up to the maximum in the player), otherwise it won’t show up in the full mixer.
Clear persistent per-program Volume
If that doesn’t work (for example, if Chrome simply does not show in the full mixer at all), then what may have happened is that the persistent audio level for Chrome got stuck somehow. You can try to reset it manually by finding and deleting Chrome’s audio setting in the registry.
Windows keeps per-application volume settings in the following registry key:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\LowRegistry\Audio\PolicyConfig\PropertyStore
To find and delete Chrome’s setting:
- Completely close Chrome to ensure that it has no active audio (or you might have to keep starting over).
- Open the registry editor (⊞Win+R →
regedit
).
- Navigate to the aforementioned key (
HKCU
= HKEY_CURRENT_USER
).
- Search (Ctrl+F or Edit → Find) for the correct branch by using
chrome
as the search term.
- Once it has found the branch, press Tab to switch to the branch (or click the branch in the left-hand pane). It will have a hexadecimal-encoded name like
65dcf42e_0
.
- Press Delete (or select Edit → Delete) to delete the Chrome branch.
- Press F3 (or select Edit → Find Next) and repeat if necessary (in case you have run Chrome from different locations).
- Now you have to restart the Windows Audio service. You can do this by rebooting, or by running the Services snap-in (
services.msc
) and right-clicking Windows Audio Service then selecting Restart
.
The Windows audio service should now have no saved audio settings for Chrome and the next time that Chrome makes noise, it should do so at full volume and show up in the full mixer.
Figure 1: Diagram of path to the full Windows volume mixer from the notification area
chrome://plugins
) page for any abnormalities? Is your new system the same as your co-workers new system? Did they come with Chrome pre-installed or did you/your company install it?