This tutorial will show you how to hide or show disconnected input and output sound devices on the Settings > Sound > All sound devices page for your account in Windows 11.
Starting with Windows 11 build 26340.9354 (Experimental 26H2) for Insiders, Microsoft added toggles so that you can choose whether to hide or show disabled, disconnected, and unplugged devices on the All sound devices page in Settings.
If you don't want to see disconnected sound or audio input and output devices on the All sound devices page in Settings, you can hide them.
Contents
- Option One: Hide or Show Disconnected Sound Devices in Settings
- Option Two: Hide or Show Disconnected Sound Devices in Control Panel
- Option Three: Hide or Show Disconnected Sound Devices using REG file
1 Open Settings (Win+I).
2 Click/tap on System on the left side, and click/tap on Sound on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Under Advanced, click/tap on All sound devices. (see screenshot below)
4 Under System defaults, click/tap on Show devices for flow on this page to expand it open. (see screenshots below step 5)
5 Turn on (show - default) or off (hide) Show disconnected audio devices on this page for what you want. (see screenshots below)
You will see any disconnected audio devices grayed out at the bottom of this page when Show disconnected audio devices on this page is turned on.
6 You can now close Settings if you like.
1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Sound icon.
2 Click/tap on the Playback or Recording tab. (see screenshots below)
3 Right click on any enabled sound device.
4 Check (show - default) or uncheck (hide) Show Disabled Devices for what you want.
5 Click/tap on OK.
1 Do step 2 (show) or step 3 (hide) below for what you would like to do.
2 Show Disconnected Sound Devices in Settings
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_ON_Show_disconnected_audio_devices_on_Settings_All-sound-devices_page.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Multimedia\Audio\DeviceCpl]
"ShowHiddenDevices"=dword:000000013 Hide Disconnected Sound Devices in Settings
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_OFF_Show_disconnected_audio_devices_on_Settings_All-sound-devices_page.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Multimedia\Audio\DeviceCpl]
"ShowHiddenDevices"=dword:000000004 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.
6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Last edited:
