AudioSwitch

Switch your Windows playback and recording devices, adjust volume, and keep your favorite audio controls close at hand from the system tray or a keyboard shortcut.

Get the latest version and release notes from the releases page. The documentation applies to the latest available release.

Downloads | Report an issue | Contribute

A Little Catch-Up

It has been a while. A busy personal life kept me away from AudioSwitch much longer than I expected, and I appreciate everyone who stuck around. Hopefully, the refreshed AudioSwitch makes the wait worthwhile.

This version has been converted to .NET 10 and WPF and improved with the help of Codex and the Astra 6 model. AI-assisted coding has made returning to this project much more manageable, and I expect it to help me work through future issues and requests faster, too.

I use the same AI help every day at work, and I stay involved here: I review the code and changes, check how things behave, and keep an eye on unnecessary bulk or odd design choices. The aim is a useful, maintainable AudioSwitch that I can keep looking after. Thank you for giving it another look.

Features

• Switch playback and recording devices from the system tray, or cycle through them with a quick right-click.
• Adjust volume and toggle mute for both playback and recording.
• Set global hotkeys for device switching, volume, and mute.
• Select a specific playback device, recording device, or input/output pair with one shortcut, including optional mute and communications-device settings.
• Control volume with the mouse wheel and your chosen modifier keys.
• Give devices friendly names and hide the ones you don't use.
• Choose startup devices for multimedia and communications, and optionally switch the communications device along with your main device.
• See volume and device changes in a skinnable on-screen display, with adjustable position, opacity, and display time. The original skins are still included.
• Customize device icon colors, keep the device list visible where you want it, and start AudioSwitch when you sign in to Windows.
• Use Windows device icons in the tray, or import custom icons and images for the device list and tray. Muted device icons show a speaker-and-X badge.
• See the device name, volume percentage, and mute state in tray tooltips.
• Choose light, dark, or Windows-matched appearance, with transparency and supported Windows animations. Show playback and recording together or separately.
• Choose from the included OSD skins, including a default that follows the app's appearance, or use Windows' own playback volume display.
• Keep settings backed up with automatic recovery and migration from the legacy app.
• Use audioswitch-cli.exe with text or JSON output for scripts and automation.
• Open detailed audio-error diagnostics from the Settings footer.

See Device Hotkeys for setup examples and the technical reference for settings, OSD behavior, and diagnostics.

Try It Out

Get the latest release from the releases page. AudioSwitch targets Windows 10 and 11. Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 are not supported by its .NET 10 runtime; older Windows versions are outside this release's scope. Microsoft's official .NET 10 support on Windows 10 is limited to specific LTSC and Enterprise releases; see the supported OS list for details.

The installer uses x64 executables and requires the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime (x64). It checks for the runtime but does not install it automatically. See the Windows runtime installation guide for downloads and supported Windows versions.

Click the tray icon to open your devices, then choose the one you want to use. Right-click the icon for the menu and Settings. With quick switching enabled, right-click cycles devices instead; Shift+right-click still opens the menu. Scroll over the flyout to adjust volume, or right-click the volume slider to mute.

Upgrading from an older version? Start the tray app once to import your old Settings.xml. Your original file is kept, and any existing JSON settings are left in place. Settings now live in %LOCALAPPDATA%/AudioSwitch/settings.json.

Help Test It

I'd appreciate feedback on everyday use, especially device switching, hotkeys, settings upgrades, USB or Bluetooth devices reconnecting, and sleep and resume.

Please open an issue if something doesn't work as expected. Include your Windows and AudioSwitch versions, the audio devices involved, and the steps to reproduce it. A short description of what you expected and what happened helps a lot. Relevant errors may also be in %LOCALAPPDATA%/AudioSwitch/errors.log.

Suggestions and pull requests are welcome, too. Thanks for helping make this release better.

Build and Contribute

Install the .NET 10 SDK on Windows, then run these commands from the solution folder:

dotnet build AudioSwitch.sln
dotnet run --project AudioSwitch -- --settings
dotnet test AudioSwitch.sln

See the contribution guide for development and testing notes, or the technical reference for command-line options, settings, installer publishing, and OSD skins.

Buy Me a Coffee

If AudioSwitch makes your day a little easier, you're welcome to buy me a coffee. Donations are optional and always appreciated. Testing, reporting issues, and sharing the app are a big help as well.

License

AudioSwitch is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0.