How to prevent Windows from enumerating audio devices

This has been a problem in Windows for as long as I can remember, where Windows will add numbers to your audio devices if you plug them into different USB ports. Luckily, it doesn't affect functionality but it looks quite stupid having numbers added like this to the names of the audio devices. And seen in every app which uses your audio device.

Haven't suffered from this for a long time but yesterday, I did a reset of my Jabra Engage 75 headset to sort a problem with some settings. After doing this, Windows apparently sees it as a new device or connected to another USB port and have for that reason added '2-' as seen below. Even when it's neither of these - still the same headset and still connected to the same USB port.

As I recall it, I found a way to fix this many, many years ago but now, I can't remember how to do it and force Windows to "start from fresh" when identifying this audio device. Things I've already tried to no avail after searching for a solution online include:

• In Windows Device Manager and after choosing to also see hidden devices, getting rid of all audio devices under Sound, video and game controllers and Audio inputs and outputs
• In the Windows Registry, manually getting rid of everything under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render
• Using an app called DeviceCleanup to do the same I already tried manually in step 1
• Using an app called USBDeview, deleted all devices which were not recently connected

Any help from you pros in here how to get rid of this stupid enumeration greatly appreciated!

This is what I'm referring to

As an update, I somehow managed to fix the issue by repeating step 1 and 2 in my list above. Not sure why it worked this time and not last time I tried it but I'm just happy I was able to fix it

Still have the same issue for another device though and this one seems absolutely impossible to fix. It's the built-in speakers in my Samsung TV which are identified by Windows when I connect the TV to my Nvidia graphics card.

I suppose what makes it so hard to fix this one is because I can't unplug the audio device which in this case is my TV before doing the steps above. Since I wouldn't be able to see what I'm doing if I did that Making sure the device you want to delete and have Windows forget about is unplugged before deleting it in Device Manager seems to be a requirement for this to work.

I even tried connecting to my PC from another PC over a remote connection using Quick Connect. Figuring I could then unplug the TV but still see the screen on the other PC over the remote connection. And I could...but sadly I was not able to interact with anything on the screen, I just had the screen. A bit odd but apparently, you need to have the screen connected to the PC you're controlling remotely in order to interact with it.

This is what it looks like now

I have three like your second pic including that Samsung (monitor) but no numbers on any mine.

john1955 said:

I have three like your second pic as including that Samsung (monitor) but no numbers on any mine.

Click to expand...

Good for you

WebMaximus said:

Good for you

Click to expand...

Are you saying that you cannot delete that Samsung device and let Windows rediscover it?

john1955 said:

Are you saying that you cannot delete that Samsung device and let Windows rediscover it?

Click to expand...

Correct, it keeps showing up with a number.

WebMaximus said:

Correct, it keeps showing up with a number.

Click to expand...

It's been a long time since I've done this but it use to be that if I looked at device manager in safe mode more older devices would show up. From what I read it was my understanding that it was the old one that got the number not the new one from it being re-detected

john1955 said:

It's been a long time since I've done this but it use to be that if I looked at device manager in safe mode more older devices would show up. From what I read it was my understanding that it was the old one that got the number not the new one from it being re-detected

Click to expand...

What you need to do is enable hidden devices to be shown. Then get rid of any old devices with the same name.

Already tried that to no avail.

Do you know anyone you can borrow a monitor from?

john1955 said:

Do you know anyone you can borrow a monitor from?

Click to expand...

Nope, unfortunately not and even if I did, I'm not sure if I would find it worth the hassle.

This isn't really a big issue since it doesn't affect the functionality. More an esthetic annoyance where I was hoping there was an easy way to fix it.