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[Jamil]

I have two USB DACs, and Windows 7 does the same bizarre thing for both--

As soon as I plug either of them in (or if I boot my computer with either already plugged in), Windows 7 will make it the default playback device automatically.  I really do not want this to happen.  My default device is already set, and I don't want it automatically changed after plugging a new device in.

Does anyone know of a way to stop Windows from doing this?  I don't want the device to be the default for all sounds in Windows.  I simply want to listen to my music using it.  I tried Google searching (maybe I am keyword challenged here), but I didn't find anything useful.

Thanks.

[Jamil]

Windows 7 has now stopped doing this on both computers.  It seems to have learned on its own that I don't want my newly plugged in DACs to be the default device.

If this happens to you, it will take a few tries for it to eventually stop happening, it seems.

[Frobozz]

I've been battling the same problem in Windows 8.
I have the default audio device set to the onboard sound.  I have my USB DAC set as a secondary audio device to be used by JRiver for audio (using WASAPI).

If I plug in the USB DAC after the computer has booted it will sometimes set the USB DAC as default.  If the USB DAC is plugged in when the computer boots the USB DAC will sometimes not be usable by JRiver (I'll have to unplug it and plug it back in, or sometimes toggling it in the control panel sound applet will get it active again).

I don't know what the pattern is.  Windows 8 hasn't managed to figure out yet that I want the onboard sound to always be the default, and it hasn't made that setting stick.

I'm wondering if there is a utility that would monitor the audio device and keep the onboard sound as default.  I'd suspect that pro-audio people run into the same problem when they have multiple audio devices connected and want the same one to always be the default.  Maybe someone has written a utility for them to help manage that.

[Jamil]

I have no experience with Windows 8.

You may be able to create vbscript that will launch the Sound control panel applet to then make your preferred playback device the default.  You can place the script in your Startup to run automatically.

Try opening up a command prompt followed by executing the following:

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl

After you press enter, do you see the sound applet open?  It does under Windows 7.

[Frobozz]

Yup, that command does open the Sound control panel applet.  Windows 8 isn't that much different from Windows 7.

I could solve these problems if I just let the USB DAC set itself as the default audio device.  It really really wants to be the default device.  I could just give in.  But I'm stubborn and don't want it as the default device.

I need to do some systematic testing to figure out exactly what is going on and exactly what set of conditions trigger the problems.  But that's too much like work.  I don't want to do that when I'm at home.

[Jamil]

Okay.  That's great.

What you can do is use the keyboard to set your desired device as default making note of all your key presses. When the applet initially appears, you may press the down arrow key to select the first device in the list. Press down arrow again to select the item in the list. Once you have the correct item selected, press tab to navigate to the Set Default button. I had to press it twice.

Once the button is selected, the enter key make the device default.

Next, press tab until the OK button is selected.  I had to press it two times.

Finally, press enter to close the applet.

Here's example script to do this.  You will want to change it according to your noted key presses:

Set oWSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
oWSH.Run "rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl", 1, False
WScript.Sleep 2000
oWSH.SendKeys "{DOWN}{TAB}{TAB}{ENTER}{TAB}{TAB}{ENTER}"

Save this as a file with a VBS extension.  You can test it out by executing it to be sure it works.  Note that the last line has a single down arrow key press. You will want to change this to the number of times you had to press the down arrow key to get to the device you want to be default.

[Frobozz]

I hadn't thought of trying VBS for this.  I've used VBS for other automation, but hadn't thought of it for this.

I still need to figure out what is going on and do some systematic testing of all of the possibilities.  I'm also running into some situations where after booting the computer that WASAPI doesn't see the USB DAC (in JRiver or Foobar), but DirectSound does.  I need to go to the audio settings in JRiver or Foobar to get them to correctly play to the USB DAC.  I need to figure out why that's happening as well.

Or I could just give up and just let the USB DAC be the default audio device and things will behave properly.