Change Default Voice Activation App for Headset Button in Windows 10


Starting with Windows 10 May 2019 Update version 1903, a new voice activation privacy setting will let you choose whether apps can listen for a voice keyword and then continue listening to the microphone after a keyword is detected.

Starting with Windows 10 May 2020 Update version 2004, you can choose what happens when you press the headset button for which voice activation app will be used by default.

Turn on (default) this setting to have your headset use whatever voice activation app you most recently used (aka; last used).

Turn off this setting to choose the default app that your headset will use.

This tutorial will show you how to change which voice activation app will be used by default when you press the headset button for your account in Windows 10.

Contents

  • Option One: Turn On "Choose what happens when you press the headset button" in Settings
  • Option One: Turn Off and Change "Choose what happens when you press the headset button" in Settings
  • Option Three: Turn On or Off "Choose what happens when you press the headset button" using a REG file






OPTION ONE

Turn On "Choose what happens when you press the headset button" in Settings


1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Privacy icon.

2 Click/tap on Voice activation on the left side, and turn on (default) Choose what happens when you press the headset button on the right side. (see screenshot below)

3 You can now close Settings if you like.

Change Default Voice Activation App for Headset Button in Windows 10-default_voice_activation_app_when_press_headset_button-1.jpg






OPTION TWO

Turn Off and Change "Choose what happens when you press the headset button" in Settings


1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Privacy icon.

2 Click/tap on Voice activation on the left side, and turn off Choose what happens when you press the headset button on the right side. (see screenshot below)

Change Default Voice Activation App for Headset Button in Windows 10-default_voice_activation_app_when_press_headset_button-2.jpg

3 Click/tap on the current default voice activation app, and click/tap on app you want to be default instead in the Choose an app menu. (see screenshot below)

Change Default Voice Activation App for Headset Button in Windows 10-default_voice_activation_app_when_press_headset_button-3.jpg

4 You can now close Settings if you like.






OPTION THREE

Turn On or Off "Choose what happens when you press the headset button" using a REG file


The downloadable .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech_OneCore\Settings\VoiceActivation\UserPreferenceForAllApp s

AgentActivationLastUsed DWORD

0 = Off
1 = On


1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.


 2. To Turn On "Choose what happens when you press the headset button"

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_ON_Use_last_used_voice_activation_app_by_default_when_press_headest_button.reg

Download


 3. To Turn Off "Choose what happens when you press the headset button"

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_OFF_Use_last_used_voice_activation_app_by_default_when_press_headest_button.reg

Download


4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn