PSA: Windows Privacy Can Stop Your Microphones From Working

 Just a quick PSA for everyone:

A few weeks ago in a fit of privacy concerns (after reading a couple too many articles on Windows 10 privacy issues); I dug through my Windows settings and attempted to lock the system down more.

Well, a few days later I had a Zoom call and found myself without a microphone. I chalked it up to me having disabled the microphone, or something similar. I didn't really need it for the call, so I moved on. I noticed it again and again, Zoom call after Zoom call... but I wasn't using my laptop for Kara-Party.com, so I just put off re-enabling the microphone.

Today I had a call where I really would have liked to have some audio. So before the call I checked out my sound devices and found that my microphone was not disabled. Ok, nothing new, probably not the default device, or default communications device. What was odd though:

I wasn't seeing any feedback in the sound bar next to the microphone when I talked:

"Odd, but OK. I probably need to check the device manage, maybe delete the microphone, and re-add it. In the meantime, I'll just grab my trusty backup webcam, complete with built-in microphone and I'll be good, right?"... wrong: It too showed the same symptoms.

So I set tried to configure the webcam, and I got an error microphone stating that "The Wizard could not start"... "Make sure your audio hardware is working properly and check your audio configuration in the Audio Devices and Sound Themes control panel."

Well there is a new one... I already saw the audio device was in the sound control panel. This is happening for two microphones, so it is unlikely to be a hardware problem... hmmm. Time for a Google... After I get through the meeting with a vow of silence! Oh, and I'm the one presenting this time. That's what I get for not sorting this sooner.

... 30 minutes later... 

Ok this is what I found: My attempts to lock down Windows caused me to experience this unexpected (and unintuitive) behavior.

First it's off to the Settings app... NOT THE CONTROL PANEL. Oh I love your broken Settings App windows 10! 

Search for "microphone privacy". Low and behold we have the vaguely familiar "Microphone Privacy Settings". 

Open it up and what do we see:

... oh no... I do remember turning that off. That seriously couldn't have blocked my microphones from even Windows... could it? Let's turn it back on and see what we get:

One little slider... not even a warning or confirmation dialog. No Apply button here.

Let's go back to the sound settings in the REAL control panel, and see where that gets us:

Let's try to configure the microphone again...

Now that's better!

Talking and seeing sound feedback:

And we're working again.

Be aware of this setting. It is certainly effective, and nice to see (although I'd prefer MS stopped trying to move everything to the awful settings app). However, it could use some polish when it comes to letting the user know that it is the reason microphones aren't working on their system.

Also, there is a more granular control below that allows you to select permissions per app. I think as much as its a pain to go to that level, I'll probably do that in future.

Did this work for you? If not, the following link has some pretty good microphone troubleshooting steps for Windows 10:

Fix: My Microphone Doesn’t Work on Windows 10 (howtogeek.com)

Keep singing my friends!