If you’re like me, then you have both speakers and headphones. Speakers are the primary of course, but when I want to block out the world, I use the headphones to zone in. I think it’s a little too cumbersome to go into the Sound applet > Playback Devices to change my default sound device every time I want to switch.
So with the combination of a few different sources, I’ve come up with a great way to quickly toggle your default sound device.
The first step is to get nircmd -- this is a free tool from NirSoft. Download and save it to your %windir%\system32 folder. This is typically your c:\windows\system32 folder.
The second step is to get AutoHotKey. Download and install that. This software is what allows you to create new and custom hotkeys. I use it for a lot more than just changing my default sound playback device.
Then install this script below. I have it saved to My Documents. I also have a shortcut of this script in my startup folder so that the script is waiting and listening once I log in.
Here’s the script:
Using the hotkey Win+A, this will change your default playback device in Windows.
You will need to download and save nircmd to your c:\windows\system32 folder.
Change the “Speakers” and the “Headphones” names to those that match your Playback device names.
More information is here: http://obrienlabs.net/use-autohotkey-to-toggle-default-sound-device/
Now all you need to do is find the name of your playback devices and substitute “Speakers” and “Headphones” for the 2 devices you want to switch between. To do that, right click on the Speaker icon in your system tray (down by the clock), select Playback devices, and you’ll see the device name in that window.
Launch or reload the AutoHotKey script. When you press Win+A, you should see a little popup box in the lower right corner of your screen telling you which playback device is the active one.
I chose Win+A because it was an available Win logo key hotkey combo, and the A was a good match for Audio. Feel free to change or modify the hotkey as you see fit. Here’s the full list of AutoHotKey combinations you can use (e.g. CTRL+Shift+A is ^+a::.)
My quick list of hotkey modifier symbols used to define a hotkey in AutoHotKey.
Full information at: http://ahkscript.org/docs/Hotkeys.htm
Hope this helped!
The purpose of this site is for me to share my DIY technical experiences as a place to document them publicly. Hopefully somewhere along the way they are helpful for you.
Otasan says
January 6, 2017 at 4:46 amThanks, this worked well for me. A small footnote: if you have more than one device named “speakers” or “headphones” you will want to rename the two you want to swap between to names that are unique in order for the script to behave. I have a lot of output devices.
Rob says
February 6, 2017 at 10:23 pmIt doesn’t work for me… it gives an error at the first line that nircmd come in
Pat says
February 6, 2017 at 10:47 pmWhat is the error? Is nircmd in your system32 folder? Can you open a command prompt (start > run > cmd) and manually type it in and see what it does? Remember, you need to find what the name of the Playback device is. For example:
nircmd setdefaultsounddevice "Speakers"
stovebison says
August 18, 2017 at 11:28 pmI’m sure I’m too late here, but changing nircmd to nircmd.exe fixed it for me.
Pat says
August 23, 2017 at 9:00 pmGood catch, glad it helped! 🙂
Richard Uberto says
February 12, 2017 at 3:37 pmThanks, Pat. Works a treat, as our friends across the pond say.
Richard
Pat says
February 15, 2017 at 9:38 amGlad to hear it!
Buzz says
March 13, 2017 at 5:07 pmWorks flawlessly. Thank you for this.
Nathan says
January 7, 2018 at 3:36 pmAwesome, thanks for sharing this.
Paul says
January 8, 2018 at 10:21 amMany thanks been looking for something like this for ages worked first time bye Paul.
Nefi says
January 11, 2018 at 1:29 pmThanks!
Gabriel Paul says
January 25, 2018 at 12:09 amI’m having a little problem, it changes the default playback device normally, but don’t change the communication device, anyone knows any workarounds?
Chris says
January 27, 2018 at 12:15 amThis is awesome! Exactly what I was looking for. SoundSwitch is giving me all sorts of problems with my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett Solo) and AudioSwitch wouldn’t even install. Was prepared to build what you posted from scratch. Thank you so much!
I am having the same “problem” as Gabriel though. My Default Communications Device doesn’t change when the Default Playback Device changes. It’s not really a problem for me though, as I don’t think I use any programs that utilize the Default Communications Device. Just thought I’d make a note of it. Thanks again!
Nicola says
May 9, 2019 at 7:35 amThe solution is:
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “DEVICE NAME” 1
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “DEVICE NAME” 2
into the if(toggle) or else 😉
Luke says
February 28, 2018 at 7:48 pmHey i have a little more specific question but i think this solution in addition of some changes would totally fulfill my requests.
I thought about using this hotkey script to switch between my audio devices when i want to play counter strike : go. My question to this point is if there is a solution to define a hotkey which switches the audio devices first and afterwards just launches counter strike and maybe another hotkey which turns back to the “default” device after is just closed the game? i am not into autohotkeyscript that much by now. Some Help would be nice.
greetings
mimdia says
November 16, 2018 at 7:51 amThanks for great post!
it works very well as just wrote.
So happy to have this toggle function. 😀
C says
March 9, 2019 at 6:31 amYou can do this in like 11 lines, I chose win +\ instead of win +a
#\::
toggle:=!toggle
Run, mmsys.cpl
WinWait,Sound
if toggle
ControlSend,SysListView321,{Down 2}
Else
ControlSend,SysListView321,{Down 1}
ControlClick,&Set Default
ControlClick,OK
return
Mark says
March 16, 2019 at 6:21 pmThat’s for posting this. works nicely for me… question though… is it possible to toggle between 3 different playback devices? I tried just adding another “else” in there but the script error’d out looking for another “if” statement.
Nicola says
May 9, 2019 at 7:27 amHi, i found this guide very useful, but I changed a few things to make the popup look nicer and to swap between more than two devices!
This is the code:
#Persistent ; This keeps the script running permanently.
#SingleInstance ; Only allows one instance of the script to run.
toggle:=0
FileRead, toggle, AIO.ini
if ErrorLevel{
toggle:=0
}
#a::
toggle+=1 ;Add 1 to toggle var
if(toggle > 3) ;(if toggle > DEVICES NUMBER) then add other else if command, if you want to increase devices number
{
toggle:=1
}
if (toggle = 1)
{
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “Speakers” 1
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “Speakers” 2
soundToggleBox(“Speakers”)
saveToggle(toggle)
}
else if (toggle = 2)
{
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “Headphones” 1
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “Headphones” 2
soundToggleBox(“Headphones”)
saveToggle(toggle)
}
else if (toggle = 3)
{
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “Monitor” 1
Run nircmd setdefaultsounddevice “Monitor” 2
soundToggleBox(“Monitor”)
saveToggle(toggle)
}
Return
; Display sound toggle GUI
soundToggleBox(Device)
{
IfWinExist, soundToggleWin
{
Gui, destroy
}
Gui, +AlwaysOnTop -Caption +Owner +LastFound +E0x20 +HWNDhGui_OSD
Gui, Color, Black
Gui, Font, cWhite w700 s12, Arial
Gui, Add, text, Center Center,%Device%
WinSet, Transparent, 200
SysGet, screenx, 0
SysGet, screeny, 1
xpos:=screenx-150
ypos:=screeny-100
Gui, Show, NoActivate x%xpos% y%ypos% AutoSize AutoSize, soundToggleWin
SetTimer,soundToggleClose, 2000
}
soundToggleClose:
SetTimer,soundToggleClose, off
Gui, destroy
Return
;Save toggle value
saveToggle(toggle){
file := FileOpen( “AIO.ini”, “w” )
if IsObject(file){
file.Write(toggle)
}
file.Close()
}
^!a::Suspend ;CTRL+ALT+A suspend this AHK script
Shamsher Nawaz says
May 18, 2019 at 5:50 pmIf you change the default device manualy then toggle variable won’t set the next device. Is there a way to get the name of default device first and then set the next one.
Pat says
May 18, 2019 at 6:27 pmI just hit the hotkey twice until the popup display tells me which one is the active one
Luther says
June 14, 2019 at 7:08 pmError: Failed attempt to launch or document:
Action:
Params
Specifically: The system cannot find the file specified
any ideas on how to resolve this?
Luther says
June 14, 2019 at 7:15 pmnever mind. It should be noted that the script itself must be in the same c:\windows\system32 folder.
Pat says
June 14, 2019 at 7:33 pmThe script doesn’t need to be in c:\windows\system32, but nircmd needs to be. If that’s still giving you trouble, then you can change the ahk to c:\windows\system32\nircmd.exe instead.