Deprecate Video Conference Mute in v0.88

[cinnamon-msft]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

We're planning to remove Video Conference Mute (VCM) in v0.88. It has been in maintenance mode since v0.67, has low usage, and there are similar features already available in Windows. We appreciate everyone's contributions and we want to thank you all for continuing to support PowerToys. ❤

Scenario when this would be used?

If you still want access to the source code, you can find it in a previous release's tree: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/tree/v0.86.0

Supporting information

No response

[cblake777]

Oh sure, despite being told that the feature WASN'T BEING REMOVED, we now are told it is going to be removed after all. It's so wonderful being lied to.

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE. As was stated NUMEROUS times in #36339, the Windows "equivalent" IS NOT AN EQUIVALENT AT ALL. This feature is a constant in my day-to-day use, and, as can be seen by all the responses in the other thread, a lot of others rely on it as well.

[sirmeili]

What the hell? You said you were only deprecating it and said it would not be removed. I use this feature daily! Especially the video mute!

[kiddailey]

Agreed. I use this every day as a consistent, simple, reliable way of muting across a variety of applications.

Edit: I think cblake777 may have meant the thread #21473

[RMRx]

Well, until this becomes a OOB OS function, which it certainly should, or another simple, reliable software for this purpose appears, it is "winget pin add Microsoft.PowerToys" at 0.87.
How unfortunate.

[flyingwolf79]

Well, looks like automatic updates are being turned off then. You guys went back on your word, you said deprecation only, not removal.

Now we know exactly how much to trust you all.

[flyingwolf79]

You know, the absolute least you could do is release it as an unsupported standalone.

[chjohans]

This is horrible horrible HORRIBLE news! :(

I was just waiting for this, even when "promised" it wouldn't happen, as this is just how big arrogant companies do things!

[BenedekFarkas]

Well, looks like automatic updates are being turned off then. You guys went back on your word, you said deprecation only, not removal.

Now we know exactly how much to trust you all.

My thoughts exactly. This is very disappointing.

EDIT: Isn't this because v0.87 broke this feature (at least for me it doesn't mute the mic anymore) and you can't or don't want to fix it? v0.86 works fine.

[klueman]

It has been in maintenance mode since v0.67

You can't use that as an excuse when you're the ones that put it in maintenance mode to begin with. You could have been developing it this whole time. All you're saying is you're doing now what you wanted to do two years ago but received pushback on, so you're trying again.

has low usage

So what? Many tools in the suite have niche uses only a small portion of users will ever need or want.

Isn't that the point of all of this? To provide specialized tools for enthusiasts based on how useful they can be, rather than how popular they are.

and there are similar features already available in Windows

In Windows 11. Windows 10 still has 300 days of support left and a significant userbase.

Also, that doesn't seem to matter for things like fancyzones.

Moreover, to keep making this excuse feels dismissive and disrespectful, because you already know its bull. You know because it has been reiterated over and over and over again for two years that the features are not equivalent.

This is basically the same as saying "we're dropping Advanced Paste because Windows has paste function already". The point is the tool is better than the Windows implementation.

If you're going to drop it, don't blow smoke. Drop it with an actual explanation for why the team doesn't want to maintain it anymore. What's the actual difficulty in just leaving it be? What are the issues with maintaining it further?

[kiddailey]

EDIT: Isn't this because v0.87 broke this feature (at least for me it doesn't mute the mic anymore) and you can't or don't want to fix it? v0.86 works fine.

Oh wow. Thanks @BenedekFarkas for the heads-up on this. I'm still on 0.84.1 and have been reluctant to upgrade for fear of losing the ability to mute. Good to know about the breakage.

[chjohans]

I am quite sure that all our comments will fall on deaf ears because that's how big arrogant companies behave.

[chjohans]

Well, looks like automatic updates are being turned off then. You guys went back on your word, you said deprecation only, not removal.
Now we know exactly how much to trust you all.

My thoughts exactly. This is very disappointing.

EDIT: Isn't this because v0.87 broke this feature (at least for me it doesn't mute the mic anymore) and you can't or don't want to fix it? v0.86 works fine.

I don't think that's the case, at least not for me. I'm on v0.87 as well and VCM works just fine, muting both my microphone and my camera.

[nwillems94]

Does anyone know of a way to just compile and install the VCM component as a standalone executable? Even without the settings page?

[CookSleep]

This is the only function I use, and you just deleted it..
Almost no one agreed with this decision in another issue #21473 , and I find it hard to understand why this is called "low usage" or "the community's idea."
Windows still doesn't support a global microphone switch, and people don't just use the few programs you support. The claim that "Windows already has a similar feature" is ridiculous!

[doskkyh]

Saying that Windows has is similar feature is misleading at the very least. Windows does not have a similar solution at all. Disabling or muting the microphone manually through the settings is not a viable alternative.

[DerGroessteMeister]

this would REALLY be a pity

it is what brought me to WPT in the first place. i really wish you‘d reconsider
i can understand the frustration of many here

please continue your great work, all the best, Chris

[HamonTeacher]

Bruh, I used this feature literally every day! Why remove it? Bring it back please, this feature has no alternatives!

[RMRx]

Bruh, I used this feature literally every day! Why remove it? Bring it back please, this feature has no alternatives!
Same here, it was the reason I started using PowerToys at all.

As far as I know, there is no current alternative for reliably muting all microphones plus the camera on OS level.
Is there any hope this module could be made available separately?

[jfpaccini]

I really do not understand the problem that would have been to simply keep this tool ? Maintenance mode, fine. So what ? who has a problem with that ? is there any unofficial-we-do-not-dare-to-say reason ?

Please bring us this feature back !! ;)

thanks

[AnonymousWP]

What's the point of removing it if you don't even offer a native Windows feature that works in a similar way? What's the point of removing it if barely need to 'maintain'/touch the code of this feature. No downsides for you, but only for us. Well, it is what it is then, but I'm not updating.

[cxwong1]

Dear OP - Created an account say how much I really don't like this feature removed. It's the feature I use the most. I loved it. It was reliable and worked for any application as intended. Please bring it back. What's the benefit of removing it?

To everyone else - What is the "equivalent" the OP is referring to? I've never heard of one.

[BenedekFarkas]

To everyone else - What is the "equivalent" the OP is referring to? I've never heard of one.

None of us here have, I think. :(

EDIT: Isn't this because v0.87 broke this feature (at least for me it doesn't mute the mic anymore) and you can't or don't want to fix it? v0.86 works fine.

This comment I posted earlier turned out to be a red herring. It seems to me that whenever I start an application that uses my mic (that can also be the "Sounds" settings window where you see the mic on the "Recording" tab), VCM doesn't mute it, only after toggling mic mute on and off. "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" prevails as always. :D
Closing and starting PowerToys again after starting the application that uses mic also works.

Does anyone know of a way to just compile and install the VCM component as a standalone executable? Even without the settings page?

I briefly looked into factoring out VCM into a separate application and so far it seems possible. I haven't got far in the process yet, but most of the module projects can be removed from the solution (except for some projects in MouseUtils due to VCM depending on them), which cuts down the number of projects from ~200 to just 40.

Starting the application from VS like that works fine, but it messes with the settings of the live application, because it's reading the same registry entries (and it initializes every module to be enabled), so the settings-related logic (and UI) of all the other modules need to be stripped out too.

---

BTW someone asked in another thread about the claim regarding low usage and if there's telemetry data behind the decision. There is a small Telemetry project in the solution and TelemetryBase.cs has a comment on top that says:

// WARNING: THIS FILE GETS REPLACED ON THE BUILD FARM

I wonder what's the replacement logic. :D

[sleepyeyesvince]

FWIW I've managed to figure a workaround.
Primarily using this:
https://github.com/frgnca/AudioDeviceCmdlets

Installation is as outlined in the linked project page:
In an administrator Terminal PowerShell Window:

Install-Module -Name AudioDeviceCmdlets

You can test with command:

Set-AudioDevice -RecordingMuteToggle

Then I made an old school batch file (I tried with a PowerShell .ps1 but I'm not good with it and couldn't get it to work well with the following steps below).

In my MicMute.bat:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -WindowStyle Hidden -Command "Set-AudioDevice -RecordingMuteToggle"

I saved MicMute.bat somewhere (%USERPROFILE%\Documents).

1. Open PowerToys "Keyboard Manager" module and enable it
2. Click Remap a shortcut
3. Click + Add shortcut remapping
4. Under "Select:" on the left, click the Shortcut pencil button and record the keyboard combination you want to use (eg Ctrl + /). Hit OK.
5. Under "To:" choose the "Action:" dropdown as "Run Program". Click "Select Program" button and locate your saved MicMute.bat.
6. [Optional: Change the "Visibility" to "Hidden" if you don't want a window popping up when the script runs]
7. Leave other options as default, particularly, leave "Target Apps:" blank (defaults to "All apps")
8. Hit "OK" at the top right of the "Remap shortcuts" window
9. Now test by hitting your shortcut.

One caveat with the removal of VCM, it appears the little toolbar showing the microphone was muted was also removed. I haven't quite figured out how to replace that yet, but I'll look further into it. If someone has an idea?

[Edited for formatting]

[jfpaccini]

FWIW I've managed to figure a workaround. Primarily using this: https://github.com/frgnca/AudioDeviceCmdlets

This is great !

One caveat with the removal of VCM, it appears the little toolbar showing the microphone was muted was also removed. I haven't quite figured out how to replace that yet, but I'll look further into it. If someone has an idea?

Windows 11 has this icon in the notification area that appears when a program uses the microphone. it correctly toggles when launching the powershell command:

Thanks for this !

[Psyphil]

Using SoundSwitch as an alternative.

https://github.com/Belphemur/SoundSwitch

No more PowerToys

[cxwong1]

Using SoundSwitch as an alternative.
No more PowerToys

I'm looking forward to trying this! (Still wishing PowerToys devs will bring back the video conference mute... the fewer programs I have running at the same time the better 😆 )

[crutkas]

I made the decision to pull it. Almost all the same reasons held for why we wanted to do it back with 0.67 still hold true. It is very difficult to test, debug in general, different webcam hardware caused issues, Arm64 quirks, had accessibility issues, it actually is x86 vs 64-bit, and extremely low usage from telemetry compared to other PowerToys utilities. The complexities of the virtual driver added to installing, upgrading, and uninstalling PowerToys also added to my decision.

I do know it does actively impact those who did that and usage is usage. As a user, you have choices and we respect that. Our team cares deeply about users and giving everyone extremely powerful utilities.

As an open-source project, if someone does find it useful, 100% please fork / leverage our code. Here is the fork we used to remove it (12bb5c2). This will have the best snapshot of the latest bits of code for this utility and how we removed it out.

[codydunne]

@jfpaccini, I had the same problem as @sleepyeyesvince with the removal of the toolbar icon. The AudioDeviceCmdlets command doesn't toggle the visible microphone icon. Nor does it show me the little banner I had at the top of the screen that Video Conference Mute gave me.

[jfpaccini]

@codydunne

@jfpaccini, I had the same problem as @sleepyeyesvince with the removal of the toolbar icon. The AudioDeviceCmdlets command doesn't toggle the visible microphone icon. Nor does it show me the little banner I had at the top of the screen that Video Conference Mute gave me.

The mic icon appears only when the mic is in use, for me it appears when a teams call starts. This is per the mic usage permission feature in win11.

No solution for the top of screen banner though.

[Krak8]

I was using this daily....
Time to un-install powertoys

[huoyan1231]

i found the way to restore Mic mute feature for Voicemeeter users
open the Voicemeeter Macro Buttons
Right click any buttons and make it look like this

i use banana version for this example if you want custom the channel please check this

and make MacroButtons run at the same time as Voiceemeeter
if you need the keyboard shotcut like powertoys, open "Keyboard manager" in powertoys

and set it like this
no Soution for the banner

Edit: if in some program not work, restart macro button with administrator

[Sabin126]

For global mic muting, I've started using:
https://github.com/SaifAqqad/AHK_MicMute

It's the simplest one I found. Doesn't require configuring AHK scripts, or finding low level mic ids (although you can customize it at that level if you want). Can have different profiles for different configurations, push to talk setup if needed, etc.