PSA: Microphone Privacy Settings in Windows 10

Hentai

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The latest update to Windows, version 1803, introduced among other things, a new audio management area in Windows. It appears they've done a handful of things to how audio works in Windows now, including new privacy settings for the microphone.

With Microphone Access disabled, which appears to be the default after the update depending on how you set your Microsoft Store settings, your Microphone may not work on traditional Windows apps as well. Your microphone will still show up in Windows, and the troubleshooter reported no issues, but unless authorized apps won't receive any inputs.

In your start toolbar search for "Microphone Privacy Settings", it should auto-suggest once you start typing 'microphone'. From there enable the generic "Allow apps to access your microphone". Feel free too uncheck any of the native apps you don't ant using your microphone. Without the generic setting however non-native apps like Audacity, et. al. won't work.

[Example Screenshot]