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So, the 'right' half of my pair of headphones broke (the transducer+wire are fine, but the earpiece broke on the headband and so the earpiece won't sit over my ear). So now the right channel is being broadcast to my cube neighbors when I wear my headphones. Yes, they look very silly.

Is there a way to ensure, in Windows XP (or Windows Media Player), that all stereo sound is downmixed to the left channel only (ie, in mono) so my neighbors don't hear my music? I know that I can setup the mixer to set the balance to 100% left, but information in the right channel won't be heard.

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I discovered that my soundcard driver has "mono laptop speaker" setting, but this didn't work; I can still hear stuff out the right-hand speaker. – J. Polfer Mar 8 '10 at 14:53
So why don't you set the balance to 100% left after selecting Mono Laptop Speaker? That should work. – Mehper C. Palavuzlar Mar 8 '10 at 15:07
Ya know, I think your'e right. The audio in both channels is the same when Mono Laptop Speaker was selected... setting it to 100% left worked. – J. Polfer Mar 8 '10 at 15:26
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Did you check Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Audio > Sound Playback > Advanced ? You can set the speakers to all possible "Mono" choices you might have. Then set the balance to 100% left. That should work.

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Even when I set everything to "mono" it only outputs the left channel in my left earphone. Why?

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This is best asked as a another question on the site. It all depends on how your sound card works internally. – J. Polfer Nov 3 '10 at 13:57
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