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

Earlier this year, rumors started floating around about a Microsoft Store App called the Realtek Audio Console. By the end of August, I myself was able to grab it from the store. I wrote a post about this stuff for Win10.Guru called Putting Realtek Audio Console to Work. In looking at driver updates for Realtek stuff, I've now figured out that the usual drivers to which @Brink links in the Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version - Windows 10 Forums thread don't work with this tool.





Instead, you need to grab a driver named Realtek HD Audio (UAD) Driver. The best place to get such a driver is from your system maker (Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, etc.) or motherboard manufacturer (Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc.). Because such drivers are not always updated quickly, or may be hard to find, some readers may find it necessary to turn to a third-party source for Realtek UAD Drivers. Right now, one good source for this driver is at the excellent US download aggregator MajorGeeks. The current page is namedRealtek UAD Driver 6.0.8911.1 . This is a good site to use if you want to check in from time to time to see what's available there (login to MajorGeeks.com, then search on Realtek UAD).

As I write this post (which will be the first item in an ongoing sticky thread that I plan to update regularly) the most current version of that driver is labeled Realtek UAD Driver 6.0.8911.1 (source: MajorGeeks.com). Here's what its Driver properties look like in Device Manager:



The new Realtek Audio Console works well and is a nice alternative to the Realtek HD Audio controller. This thread will help you keep up with the latest drivers that work with this UWP app.

HTH,
--Ed--

[PS added 3 mins later:] After just updating my Dell Venue Pro 11 7130 to the 8564 drivers, I was reminded that these drivers install WAY FASTER than those in the other Realtek HD Audio driver fork. It finished in under 30 seconds on both my i7 6700K desktop (a beast) and on the Venue Pro (i5 mobile CPU 1.86 GHz, more of a mouse than a beast). I installed by using the "Update drivers" button in Device Manager, I didn't run the realtek exe file (which requires 2 reboots). Just FYI.

[PS Added 2/3/2019: Check out the @Cliff S Post #103 for great instructions on how to clean out old Realtek stuff before switching over to newer drivers (of any kind). Find it here: Realtek Audio Console REQUIRES a Realtek HD (UAD) Driver!! - Page 11 - Windows 10 Forums.]

[PS Added 10/26/2019] Found myself back to the Realtek HD Audio drivers (again), so I uninstalled in Programs and Features, then followed Cliff's step-by-step instructions including the cmd.exe script that starts with fsutil. Upon installing the MajorGeeks driver, I was once again back to Realtek (R) Audio with a working UWA Realtek console. Try this technique if you revert to the older Realtek HD Audio drivers, too. It works!

[PS Added 2/27/2020] Wrote a blog post yesterday about updating to the latest versions, including the Software Component drivers for Realtek as well as the UAD driver itself. Check it out: {WED} Updating Realtek UAD Audio Drivers - Ed Tittel.

[PS Added 4/1/2020] In response to an ongoing misunderstanding and disagreement with certain forum members, I have removed mention of the French website Station Drivers as a possible source of downloads from the preceding materials. That said, I have personally been downloading drivers from that website since the early-to-mid-2000s and have never, ever had a problem with their downloads. Personally, I use -- and recommend to others -- the drivers they offer though their Realtek (HDA/UAD) category under the heading Drivers (UAD), where you'll find entries for all the major motherboard and system makers. Use at your own risk!

[PS Added 6/10/2020] After using the Realtek setup.exe program for UAD driver version 8923, I found my machine had reverted from the UAD back to the HDA (High Definition Audio) drivers. It took some serious experimentation to fix the issue(s), and to restore the associated UWP app Realtek Audio Control/Realtek Audio Console to working condition. I document the whole process in a Win10.Guru article entitled Bringing Realtek UAD Drivers Back from the Dead. Should be helpful for anybody who finds their setup reverted, too (though the details will vary by system and motherboard maker).

Interesting - I was massively upset when the included Windows drivers in 1803 completely removed my own RealTek drivers that included the RealTek HD Audio manager, which has everything that you show in in that screenshot plus a lot more, including a tab for room correction, assigning the default of output and input audio, tabs for the different types of output and input, and the ability to tie front panel and rear panel jacks or let them run independently.

Luckily, I found Snappy Driver Installer Origin, which has me back with the RHDAM on version 8552. Ever since installing one of the IP builds just prior to 1803, I could get none of the Micro$oft catalog drivers to install and allow install of the RHDAM to work, but sometime in July / August it all started working again (after a clean install). Since then RHDAM has been working, and even with my latest clean install it is still there.

I think I'll stick with it for now - but when my hardware does, finally, get replaced, I might give the 'WinX' version a shot.

Thanks for the heads up, Ed!

You're welcome, JLG. Always trying to share useful info with the community. Perhaps it will come in handy for you someday!
Best wishes,
--Ed--

Hmmm. Hadn't thought of the need for standalone driver files for injection via DISM. This could get interesting... We'll have to see what unfolds as a consequence. Thanks for pointing this out!
--Ed--

Indeed. This makes things more ... interesting.

Dear @jeffrey:
You want to go to Device manager, then right-click on the Realtek device under Sound, video and game controllers.
Select "Update Driver" from the resulting pop-up menu.
Click "Browse my computer for driver software."
In the "Search for drivers in this location text box" window, click the Browse button, then navigate to the subdirectory that is created when you unpack the contents of the Station Drivers exe file onto a hard disk. In my case, I used 7zip to unpack the contents for that .exe file into a folder named D:\RealTekUAD\realtek_uad_8564(www dot station-drivers dot com).

Looks like this:


Then click the "Next" button and it should run to completion -- and install the driver -- from there.

HTH,
--Ed--

Note: the actual directory spec includes the URL for Station Drivers. But when I tried to post that it totally freaked out the website parser. Had to work through a six-message sequence of back-n-forth with @Brink before we figured it out! I just can't include its URL in a post to TF for some reason. Weird.