Windows - Managing Sound Devices

This guide is meant to demonstrate how to switch from your computer speakers and microphone to a headset or other external sound device.

These instructions are applicable to PC computers running Windows 10.

This tutorial also assumes you have a secondary playback device attached to your computer. 

1. To switch your computer's sound device, click the speaker/volume icon in the lower right of your task bar.

   

   
   

2. Once clicked you will see the currently selected sound device. You can then click the up-arrow to choose a different device.

   

   
   

3. You can then select your preferred sound device.

   

   
   

4. Once your sound device is selected, all applications that could use that sound device, should switch to using the selected device. You should confirm an applications setting before all playback situations such as Teams or 3CX calls.

   
   

   Use the following steps to confirm your sound devices in Teams .

   
   

Microsoft Teams - Check your device settings.

To confirm the device settings for Microsoft Teams, follow these steps.

1. In the upper right corner of the Microsoft Teams interface, select the menu designated by the "..." symbol.

   

   
   

2. Then select Devices from the left menu. Your currently selected sound devices are shown. By default, the selected playback device is set for the speaker and microphone.

   

   
   

3. You can also change these settings for a "Custom Setup".  In this example, the microphone is switched back to using the built-in computer microphone.