How to Enable or Disable the Microphone in Windows


When you are not using the microphone (mic) on your PC, you may want to disable it for privacy and security reasons, as it can get hacked and the hackers would be able to hear everything you say.

This tutorial will show you different ways on how to enable or disable the microphone on your Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 PC.

Contents

• Option One: To Enable or Disable Microphone in Settings (Device properties)
• Option Two: To Enable or Disable Microphone in Settings (Manage sound devices)
• Option Three: To Enable or Disable Microphone in Device Manager
• Option Four: To Enable or Disable Microphone in Recording Devices
• Option Five: To Enable or Disable Microphone in Registry Editor
• Option Six: Allow or Deny Microphone Access for this Device

OPTION ONE

To Enable or Disable Microphone in Settings (Device properties)

This option is only available in Windows 10.

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

2 Click/tap on Sound on the left side, select your microphone under Input on the right side, and click/tap on the Device properties link. (see screenshot below)

3 Check (disable) or uncheck (default - enable) the Disable box for what you want. (see screenshot below)

4 You can now close Settings if you like.

OPTION TWO

To Enable or Disable Microphone in Settings (Manage sound devices)

This option is only available in Windows 10.

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

2 Click/tap on Sound on the left side, and click/tap on the Manage sound devices link under Input on the right side. (see screenshot below)

3 Click/tap on your microphone device under Input devices, and click/tap on the Enable (default) or Disable button. (see screenshots below)

4 You can now close Settings if you like.

OPTION THREE

To Enable or Disable Microphone in Device Manager

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do this option.

1 Open Device Manager.

2 Do step 3 (enable) or step 4 (disable) below for what you want to do.

 3. To Enable Microphone

A) Expand open Audio inputs and outputs. (see screenshot below)

B) Right click or press and hold on your microphone device, click/tap on Enable device, and go to step 5.

 4. To Disable Microphone

A) Expand open Audio inputs and outputs. (see screenshot below)

B) Right click or press and hold on your microphone device, and click/tap on Disable device.

C) Click/tap on Yes to confirm, and go to step 5.

5 When finished, you can close Device Manager if you like.

OPTION FOUR

To Enable or Disable Microphone in Recording Devices

1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Sound icon.

If you like, you can open Run (Win+R), enter the control mmsys.cpl,,1 command into Run, and click/tap on OK to directly open Recording devices.

3 Do step 3 (enable) or step 4 (disable) below for what you want to do.

 3. To Enable Microphone

A) In the Recording tab, right click or press and hold on an empty area in the box of recording devices, and make sure you have Show Disabled Devices checked.

B) Right click or press and hold on your microphone device, click/tap on Enable, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

 4. To Disable Microphone

A) In the Recording tab, right click or press and hold on your microphone device, click/tap on Disable, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

OPTION FIVE

To Enable or Disable Microphone in Registry Editor

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do this option.

1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below step 3)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Capture

3 Expand open the Capture key in the left pane, and open the Properties subkey of each long number GUID (ex: "{371f9413-b87e-4e6d-b12f-c28596a675de}") until you find your microphone device (ex: "Microphone Array/Creative VF0800") shown in the right pane. (see screenshot below)

4 In the right pane of the GUID key (ex: "{371f9413-b87e-4e6d-b12f-c28596a675de}") for your microphone device, double click/tap on the DeviceState DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot below)

5 Enter the Value data from the table below for what you want to do, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

Value data	Description
1	Enable
10000001	Disable

6 When finished, you can now close Registry Editor if you like.

OPTION SIX

Allow or Deny Microphone Access for this Device

This option is only available starting with Windows 10 build 17063.

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

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

2 Click/tap on Microphone on the left side, click/tap on the Change button on the right side, and turn On (default) or Off Microphone access for this device for what you want. (see screenshots below)

That's it,
Shawn

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