Force Microsoft Teams to use default audio devices set in Windows

Question

Teams doesn't have a setting to use the default audio devices set in Windows. It just remembers its own (rather buried) device settings, and if those devices aren't present, decides on its own what devices you'll use. (And you'll like it, mister.)

I move between workstations with different audio setups. Sometimes I change my default audio device while at one workstation - maybe I want to use my headset, maybe the laptop speakers are good enough. Teams ignores me and does what it wants.

Zoom and other conferencing apps have an option to use whatever the default audio devices set in Windows for meetings. How can we force Teams to do the same?

(If it were quick and easy to change the audio devices like in Zoom, this wouldn't be as much of a problem.)

Answer 1

Answer : You can't, or at least not easily.

This is one of the most-asked features for Microsoft Teams, and perhaps one of the most ignored by the developers.

An example of user frustration can be found in the post Default audio devices in teams from 2020, where users vent their anger of Microsoft incompetence. Once Teams chooses the wrong device, the only solution was to unplug all other devices in order to force it to use the right device.

You might be able to use an audio-routing product, such as the VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device to connect forcefully Teams to an audio device, but I have never tried this configuration.

Answer 2

A more generic answer - you can't freely override application's audio device handling, that includes Microsoft Teams especially, since it's a closed source application.

Applications are coded to use devices as they desire, with help of system APIs such as Windows Core Audio, which shouldn't be modified even if they could, as that could break a bunch of other applications or parts of the system.

An idea would be to use e.g. a portable AutoHotKey script that you'd have on pendrive and which would automatically set proper device(s) in settings of Teams by clicking on proper inputs. Other than that, you can only complain and likely get bounced back by corpo wall.