Realtek Audio Console REQUIRES a Realtek HD (UAD) Driver!!

Hey Cliff, I will try it.

Hemimax said:

Hey Cliff, I will try it.

Don't miss the part about using Driver Store Explorer.

   Note

You need to uninstall the Realtek drivers either through Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features, or Settings> Apps> Apps and features, or better yet a 3rd party tool like Geek Uninstaller or whatever one you prefer because Microsoft doesn't support it in Device manager for the following reason:

You have a 3rd party driver installed on a system via the 3rd party installation
The driver installer also installs a 3rd party application or applications
You try to uninstall the driver through the Device Manager

In this scenario, the driver files, as well as the 3rd party application are not removed. Each time you reboot the machine, or any other action that forces a re-enumeration of plug and play devices, it will try to install the drivers.
Cause
Microsoft has confirmed that this behavior is by design.

Also do not use the rollback feature in Device Manager, just uninstall the 3rd party driver and reinstall the one you wish.

Roll Back Driver to Previous Version in Windows 10 | Tutorials

@Hemimax
If you still have problems:

1. Uninstall the Realtek drivers, and reboot.

2. Delete the install folder(in Programs x86)

3. Run the following in an admin cmd prompt(copy & paste):

fsutil resource setautoreset true c:\&fsutil usn deletejournal /d /n c:&Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup&Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth&Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase&pause

4. (This is a must to thoroughly clean) Use a MFT search tool like Ultra Search or Everything(MFT scanning tools find a lot more than Windows indexing does by scanning the Master File Table and do it faster*) and delete all Realtek audio and A-Volute files and folders you can(some things need system permissions, those you won't be able to delete, but are not a problem)
*Microsoft doesn't use the MFT for Windows search, because it does show every single thing, including things that could nuke your system if deleted.

5. Check C:\ProgramData for A-Volute and delete

6. Run RAPR(Driver Store Explorer) and select and delete all Realtek Audio and A-Volute drivers from the driverstore

7. Then open Regedit to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and delete the keys to Realtek Audio and A-Volute too.
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Realtek\Audio)
At this point it's good to run the registry cleaner in Ccleaner too

8. Reboot your system

9. Reinstall the Realtek drivers.

10. Click this link to the UWP app and let the store open: Get Realtek Audio Control - Microsoft Store to install Realtek Audio Control v1.2.168.0

   Information

For anyone with an ASUS ROG motherboard or laptop:

Install Sonic Studio III v3.13.8.0 (Optional) : Get Sonic Studio 3 - Microsoft Store
Install Sonic Radar III v3.13.8.0 (Optional) : Get Sonic Radar 3 - Microsoft Store

Thank you @Cliff S, You explain it really well!
Have you ever uninstalled MS Store? I was wondering how or it affected the installed apps (Mail, Calendar etc) they all work well and I don't want to mess them up.

Hemimax said:

Thank you @Cliff S, You explain it really well!
Have you ever uninstalled MS Store? I was wondering how or it affected the installed apps (Mail, Calendar etc) they all work well and I don't want to mess them up.

I sure did, DON'T DO IT!
It's a pain in the DOS to get back

You need to do a Repair Install to get it back.

Thank you, it ain't worth all that.

Hemimax said:

Thank you, it ain't worth all that.

No problem, you're welcome

I'd make one additional suggestion:

Make a complete system backup. Reason being, if you (even accidentally) delete a needed system folder (although this is generally hard to do), and b0rk your system, restore the system backup and start over.

For the truly paranoid, make a system backup, and then make additional backups at every step after you verify that every thing works after performing a single step. This is as close as you can get to safeguarding your system when performing a complicated set of procedures like this.

And, yes, I realize that making repeated backups is not only cumbersome, but also not necessarily needed, especially if you have even a little bit of system knowledge (for example, I'd probably run through all of Cliff's step without a single backup at all - but I already know what I am doing, and technically, that is not true, as I do weekly backups anyway, so I already have a baseline backup).

But, if you're unsure at all, it never hurts to make backups that you don't need - but it surely hurts to need a backup you don't have, even just once.

Nice work, @Cliff S. Thanks for the taking the time and expending the effort to explain and show how to get those Realtek drivers gone, gone, gone. RAPR is a terrific tool, and this is another nice use for it. Much-appreciated.
--Ed--

EdTittel said:

Nice work, @Cliff S. Thanks for the taking the time and expending the effort to explain and show how to get those Realtek drivers gone, gone, gone. RAPR is a terrific tool, and this is another nice use for it. Much-appreciated.
--Ed--

Thank you Ed.
I had the problem and after fixing it, I thought I'd post.

I have always found Realtek drives a Real- pain(as opposed to Realtek). The HDA ones would Uninstall & reboot loo until I just used an uninstaller, and then ran the "update" installer. Kind of like the direction Microsoft is going with Windows 10 upgrades now