How to turn off the microphone on a laptop. How to disable the built-in microphone on a laptop

It's hard to imagine a laptop without a built-in camera and microphone. This is a necessary attribute for voice communication. But there are times when you need to disable the built-in microphone to connect other devices, such as a headset, headphones or a Skype handset.

The ability to mute the microphone on a laptop depends not only on the laptop model, but also on the operating system. Therefore, it is best to refer to the instruction manual of your laptop. The standard way to mute the microphone on a laptop is to use the Control Panel. To do this, find the “Sounds and Audio Devices” section and, opening the “Sounds” tab, turn off the microphone. You can also turn the microphone back on in the “Control Panel”.

If you have a microphone from Realtek on your laptop, you can disable it through the manufacturer's utility. By installing this utility, you can turn off the microphone in Realtek HD Manager. In addition, you can adjust the microphone volume there.

You can also mute the microphone using the keys on your laptop. Some laptops have a special key that is responsible for turning the microphone on and off. Usually there is a microphone on it; it works mainly in combination with “Fn”.

There is another possibility to control the microphone through voice communication programs. An example of such a program is Skype. It has access to control the laptop's audio devices.

If you want to prevent unauthorized access to the microphone, you can disconnect the microphone from the internal connector. To do this, you will need to partially disassemble the laptop by removing the microphone or disconnecting the connector.

In a modern laptop, you can easily turn on and off any device using buttons. This will help avoid direct mechanical intervention on the laptop.

Equipped with a built-in microphone. And by default, this microphone works constantly, which many users do not like. Indeed, in theory, this could lead to information leakage.

In order to avoid possible information leakage, this laptop's built-in microphone can be disabled. There are two ways to do this: software mute the microphone and using a special key.

Mute the microphone on a laptop programmatically

In order to mute the microphone on a laptop you need. To do this, right-click on the speaker icon on the taskbar and select “Recording Devices”.

After this, the “Sound” window will open in front of you on the “Recording” tab. Here you can mute the microphone. To do this, you just need to right-click on the microphone and select “Disable” in the window that appears.

If you later decide to turn on the microphone, this is done in the same way. Right-click on the disabled microphone and select “Enable”.

Mute the microphone on a laptop using a special key

In addition, very often there is a special key on the laptop keyboard to mute the microphone. This key is marked with an icon that looks like a crossed out microphone. In order to mute the microphone using this key, you need to press it together with the Fn key.

There may also be a separate button or switch on the laptop body to turn the microphone on and off. But this option is less common.

Today, almost all laptops from acer, lenovo, hp, asus, and so on, are equipped with built-in “Speakers” through which they reproduce sound and “microphones” that allow them to record sound.

In Windows 7 or Windows 8, you can use the microphone in programs such as Skype, Google Voice, or ICQ to talk to others over the Internet.

Most people buy laptops from budget categories. Their microphones leave a lot to be desired, so sometimes you have to buy a better microphone and turn off the old one.

This is of course not the only option why you may need to disable the built-in microphone.

Sometimes, when connected, the recording device does not automatically turn off - you have to help it manually.

Instructions - turn off the microphone in a laptop Windows 7 / Windows 8

In order to disable the built-in microphone in your laptop (acer, lenovo, hp, asus or other), you first need to take into account your individuality.

Some have a special key/button for this. If not, then follow the short procedure as described below.

In Windows 7 or Windows 8, right-click on the speaker icon and click on the “recording devices” line.

A window will open in which you will see icons of recording devices (maybe one, maybe two). If there are two icons, then disable both.

To do this, click on the icon as in the figure below with the right mouse button and click “disable” in the menu that appears.

Carry out similar procedures with all existing ones. After that they shouldn't bother you anymore.

Completely disabling the built-in microphone in a laptop

If you doubt something and want to take additional measures, then in the same window (as in the figure above), select the microphone (with the left button) and click properties.

Another tab will open. In it also click on the “properties” option. A third window will appear.

In it, at the very top, click “driver”. After this, you will see a menu in which at the very bottom there will be an option - “delete”. Click and confirm.

All your recording devices are now turned off completely. Without you, no virus can launch it. You can, of course, turn it off mechanically by disconnecting the connectors, but this will be unnecessary, and not everyone can do it.

Another option, just set the sensitivity level to zero. Then, although the microphone will be turned on, it will not be able to “hear” anything. Good luck.

Fans of video communication are familiar with the situation when, during a call, the interlocutor becomes aware of extraneous noise or a random conversation of relatives in the background. You can use an audio headset, which guarantees directional reception of your voice, or you can, to the detriment of communication quality, reduce the sensitivity of the microphone by lowering the level in the settings. But for example, the first option is not entirely acceptable, since many users do not like communicating in, and the second will require complete silence and directing the voice towards the microphone.

How to mute the microphone in Skype?

Let's look at the most popular video calling program, Skype, how you can temporarily disable the microphone function. This option to protect yourself from extraneous sounds will be optimal for most online conversations.

The program provides the ability to configure hot keys with which you can turn off the microphone by briefly pressing it, or by holding the key to temporarily deactivate its operation.

Setting up Skype hotkeys for the microphone

1. Launch the Skype program and log in with your account.
2. Go to the following path: Tools -> Settings -> Advanced -> Keyboard shortcuts
   
   
   
3. And now on the right side of the settings window we find the items of interest:
   • Mute microphone
   • Temporarily turn off/on the microphone

   Opposite each line there will be a key combination that activates the specified action.

4. We select one of the actions we are interested in by clicking the left mouse button, and then click the “Change combination” button at the bottom.
5. A miniature window will open in front of you to indicate the keys. Check the required boxes and add any other key to use.
   
   
   
6. Save by clicking the “OK” button. And let's do the same steps for the second item to turn off the microphone, only for it we will select a different set of keys from the first!
7. After making changes, you can close the settings window by clicking the “Save” button. Now, the next time you make a call, you can use hotkeys to mute the microphone.

Instead of an afterword

Skype allows you to configure a number of other actions by pressing keyboard shortcuts. It will also be useful to use hotkeys for accepting and rejecting calls.

All modern gadgets, including laptops, smartphones and tablets, have a microphone. We are often asked how to mute the microphone on a laptop. It would seem, why turn it off at all? Inexperienced users may need this so that the connected headset is automatically detected as the main device for audio recording. As is often the case, there is nothing complicated here and you can follow several simple paths. These are the ones we will look at in this article.

Mute the microphone on a laptop

The Windows operating system has one huge advantage: just hover the cursor over any of its elements, and you will receive its description, a kind of mini-tip.

The first and simplest option is suitable for all OS versions. Look in your tray. It's in the lower right corner. There are a number of icons, a clock and a date. We'll need a speaker icon.

Instructions for muting the microphone:

Option two - shutdown via the control panel

In general, the instructions are almost the same and in the end we will end up in the same window, but if for some reason you do not see the tray icon, you can go the other way:

The third option is for laptops with a built-in microphone from Realtek

Using the tray icon or Windows search, we get to the driver program called “Realtek HD Manager”; to disable the recording device you need to:

These three methods are ideal for any laptop, and the first two are completely universal - they work on any version of the operating system and with recording devices from a variety of manufacturers. The third is relevant only for Realtek microphones - all more or less good laptops have it installed, which is why we additionally described this method.