How to stop Windows 10 changing my default sound device

Question

I use my computer to test various USB devices, mostly external sound cards (Steinberg, Focusrite, etc.) Every time I connect a new sound card to USB, Windows sets it as the default sound device. As a result, my notifications and system sounds from the on-board output stop playing. I can't rely on hearing the sound, for example, when I disconnect the USB device, etc. This makes my job very difficult.

Disabling the new device is not a solution for me, as once the device is tested, I will never use it again.

I simply need Windows to stop messing with my default device, like it was in Win7. Maybe stopping some service? Or remove some rights on some registry key ???

Answer 1

There is no way to disable that behavior in Windows 10 without third-party software.

However, I found an open source program called SoundSwitch (website | github) that can be configured to forcefully keep your desired audio device selected as a default.

In order to set it up to only do that, install it, then open configuration and change following options:

• On "Playback" tab don't select anything and uncheck "Hotkey enabled" checkbox
• On "Recording" tab don't select anything and uncheck two "Hotkey enabled" checkboxes
• On "Profiles" tab click "+ Add" button
  • "Name": anything (e.g. Force default device)
  • "Also switch default device" and "Restore devices when trigger ends" are irreleavant here (have no effect when there is a single forced profile)
  • "Notify when profile is triggered": keep if needed
  • Set 4 devices which are Default Playback, Default Recording, Default Communication Playback and Default Communication Recording. Note the order.
  • In "Available triggers" dropdown select "Force profile" and click "Add" button
  • Click "Save" button.
• On "Settings" tab defaults are well suited already. You can change notification option (By default it will show a transparent banner overlay every time it re-selects a device).

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Before I found SoundSwitch, I used to switch my sound device back by manually running bat file calling setdefaultsounddevice command from NirCmd with appropriate device names.

Answer 2

In lack of an obvious answer, here's a Workaround which should work on most PC's (it works for sure with Realtek Audio drivers):

You can use StereoMix to route all sounds from the default device to a device of your choice (i.e. your speakers), with the following steps. This will not prevent your default device from changing, but at least you can hear the sounds.

1. Right click on the sound volume icon in the system tray located in the lower right corner, select Sounds from the pop-up menu to open the Sound window.
2. Go to the Recording tab, right click on any blank space there.
3. Select Show Disabled Devices from the pop-up menu.
4. Now, you’ll be able to see a recording device named Stereo Mix (or Wave Out Mix, Mono Mix, etc.).
5. Right click on Stereo Mix and select Enable from the context menu.
6. Right click on it again when it's enabled and select Set as Default Device.
7. Right click on it once again and select Properties
8. Go to the Listen tab at the top.
9. Check Listen to this device.
10. Click on the down arrow to open the drop-down menu of Playback through this device, and select your speakers as a secondary audio playback device.
11. Click OK in the Properties window, and OK in the Sound window.
12. Restart your PC

Answer 3

I had a similar problem, my PC is connected to LG TV, everytime I switch the TV off, Windows will automatically change the default audio device from LG TV sound to realtek. When I turn the LG TV on and resume windows, there is no sound! So I had to open device manager and click on "Scan for hardware changes" which will refresh the sound device and will set it back to LG TV. I was a able to solve this problem by creating a scheduled task that will make Windows execute the following command pnputil.exe /scan-devices on startup and every time Windows resume from standby. Please refer to below short video for detailed steps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0TyIV3sgtg&t=1s

Answer 4

If you know how to setup Voicemeeter, you can route your audio to the 'default' device you want to use. Then in Windows, Sounds > Playback, right click and disable all the audio devices except Voicemeeter Input, your device will still work (is 'enabled') in Voicemeeter, and Windows won't switch to any other devices if they're disabled.