A hotkey to switch between headphones and speakers. Soundswitch.

Posted by Dustin on May 4, 2009 Leave a comment (218) Go to comments

I use USB headphones. I also use regular speakers connected to my sound card. Windows makes it a multi-step process to switch from headphones to speakers.

I tired of this, so I wrote a program to rectify the situation and I called it Soundswitch because I’m a wordsmith. You can find this program here:

soundswitch_v2.03 – (latest version)

update: There’s a beta-quality release of 3.0 available here.

Basic Use and Installation

Unzip it to the directory of your choice.

Look in the Sound applet in control panel to see which two sound devices you want to switch between. In the following image, the two I switch between are labeled 1 and 4. Thus, in the ini file, I used 1 for Source1 and 4 for Source2. Update: Note that the number of items will vary based upon whether you have “Show Disabled Devices” and “Show Disconnected Devices” checked (Right click anywhere in the list to see these). For the purposes of Sound Switch make sure both options are checked before counting the items. The screenshot below doesn’t reflect this.

The ini by default has the switch key assigned to Ctrl-Alt-F12. Edit this as you like.

Tested on Win7 x64 and Vista x32. Update: XP no longer works with the latest updates. Use this older version for XP compatibility: soundswitch

Any comments on this are welcome and I’ll try to fix any bugs reported.

Version 2 Notes

I’ve added a good number of features in the latest version. All accessible through the .ini file.

“Scroll” through each enabled item in your Sound panel.
Hide the tray icon
Switch between two speaker configurations for your current active playback device
Switch/scroll just the default comm device, default playback device, or both
Hotkey to terminate the program

Techprogramming, software

← How to increase your son’s intelligence.

I don’t get Facebook. →

218 Comments.

BigFuzzy October 30, 2011 at 12:06 pm

@ Shaheire

Create a .bat file that runs on start up commanding to open soundswitch.
I think?
Keith Price November 21, 2011 at 1:53 am

First, this is DEF a tool that solves a HUGE ANNOYING PROBLEM, so THANK YOU!

Second, on my Windows 7 64 bit, it only works when I set my INI to the positions with Disabled and Disconnected OFF.

When those are checked, your tool actually unchecks them and then activates the positions from the INI.

So, when I set the ini accordingly, it worked great. Thanks again.
Scott November 22, 2011 at 11:15 am

Anyway to switch between two microphones, one built into a webcam and the other in a headset.
Chris November 29, 2011 at 1:49 am

Wow this program is PERFECT!!!

Very easy to use… THANKS~~~!!!

More people should know about this. Such a simple program saved me hours and hours of hassle!!
dwarr26 November 30, 2011 at 12:12 pm

Amazing, thank you soooo much.. this is exactly what I was looking for… to a previous comment, I scanned this with MSE and SAS and nothing came back.. Thank you again to the author.. Is the donate button on the right for the author of this program..
Dustin November 30, 2011 at 1:19 pm

@dwarr26: Yes, the donate button is for the author.
Enrique November 30, 2011 at 4:38 pm

Hi! is there any way to make it work on spanish language? if the answers is no, is there any way i could help you to translate or something? the program looks awesome, but I can’t use it
Kevin Severud December 1, 2011 at 12:30 pm

There’s another product named SoundSwitch on Microsoft’s CodePlex site: http://soundswitch.codeplex.com/
Dustin December 3, 2011 at 4:37 pm

@Enrique: It currently doesn’t work with spanish.

The next version will support multiple languages. I’ll try to get that out within a few weeks.
Xonar DS December 8, 2011 at 12:31 pm

I have problem with my Xonar DS not automaticly switching between Headset/Speakers and thx to you i can now fix this issue!

Many thx for this!
Susan December 15, 2011 at 1:14 pm

I’m trying your older version with XP…I don’t see anything different in right clicking the sound tray icon…help!
Barry December 20, 2011 at 5:55 am

Don’t know if thisa happened to anyone else, but when I downloaded and extracted version 2 – McAffee came up and said it removed the trojan Artemis!D293B22499CF.
Graham December 26, 2011 at 3:15 pm

dude – this is highly favorable!!!!
mona January 2, 2012 at 1:02 pm

Hi,
Can you show exactly what to write next to Source1 and Source2 in the .ini file with the above example?
Peter January 5, 2012 at 3:42 pm

Hi,
I am also getting the:

“Error setting SwitchSpeakerCount to ^!{F9}.”

I’ve tried changing the hotkeys, but I had no success.

I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
TriX January 13, 2012 at 7:59 am

I love your program, simple and easy to use!

Thanks!
Eric January 18, 2012 at 6:51 pm

Thank you so much for this little program. It works great and saves me loads of time. You did a great job!
MostHost LA January 20, 2012 at 12:59 am

Awesome program. Really saves me from the headache of manually opening the control panel and changing the default device — and from coding it my self! I was right about too out of desperation after purchasing a Logitech G930 Head Set

You should talk to Logitech into paying you to include your program with their Logitech gaming Software