Update - Windows 7 - Microphone control - where is it?

Ok, now that I have the RTM of Windows 7 installed I realized they have changed the microphone controls and made it a bit easier but still confusing. So, here are some screenshots with a brief write up so you can find it. Crazy frustrating for those of us who do livemeeting, gotomeeting and webex stuff on a regular basis!

You will need to right mouse click on the speaker icon in the taskbar in the lower right and it will pop up a menu option. The third one down is "Recording devices" - select this one.


From there it will pop up a "Sound" window - pick the second tab which is "Recording" and it should display a microphone. Highlight it and then pick properties in the lower right of the window.


When that window pops up you will finally be able to adjust the properties of the microphone. You will need to go to the third tab labeled "Levels" in order to set the microphone gain or adjust it at all with the exception of muting, sort of. Even though it is shown muted in this window if you use the "Volume Mixer" window it will not display it as "muted!" but it is actually muted. Am I the only one confused here?


You get to the Volume Mixer window by left mouse clicking on the speaker in the lower right of the task bar and selecting "Mixer." It will pop up a window that shows all your current speaker and microphone devices as shown. I have selected to mute it here and if I toggle it back and forth it does what I expect but it does not match what is in the Microsoft Properties tab! I think that is a bug.


Glad they made it a bit easier to at least mute the microphone but weird that the two items don't display the same "state" for the microphone.
- Ed

Windows 7 - Microphone control - where is it?

It has been driving me nuts for several days trying to figure out how to control when the microphone is on or off on my Lenovo T60 laptop with Windows 7 RC (I am assuming the RTM is the same.) I have been listening to a lot of online training materials the last few days and the mic has been on the whole time with no obvious way to turn it off. I finally took the time to figure it out.
You have to mouse click on the speaker icon in the task bar, then click on the speaker icon at the top of the volume adjustment graphic that pops up. That will open a new window titled Speaker Properties, you pick the Levels tab and under that is Microphone. You can adjust the level of the microphone but more importantly there is the option to mute it (you click on the speaker - yes I know, it doesn't make any sense.)
Why the microphone mute option is buried here I have no idea, you can get to the same window by right clicking the speaker icon in the taskbar and selecting Open Volume Mixer then doing the same click on the speaker but this is just as un-intuitive as what I outlined before.
Given how many folks are doing multimedia stuff today (video/screencasts/podcasts) you would think the microphone would finally get some respect and its own icon set? Guess not.
- Ed

Updated post for the RTM on this is at:
http://www.howfunky.com/2010/02/update-windows-7-microphone-control.html