Windows 11 Audio Weirdness: Bluetooth vs Wired, Headphone vs Headset, and More

I do some Youtube videos and one of the ways is to use NVIDIA Shadowplay to both capture the foodtage AND to add live commentary. However, it seems that Win11 has changed the way things are set it's a royal PITA to connect Bluetooth headset, but only use it as Bluetooth headphones. It seems you cannot "choose" that, but you have to disable it under Settings // System // Sound then find Microphone section, find the Bluetooth microphone, and click on "don't allow". 

There are other ways, but they come with additional drawbacks. One of the ways offered up by Google via one of the forums was go into Device Manager and disable the device's "AVRCP" protocol driver. However, this has several problems. a) if you disable AVRCP, Windows will not detect your headset as a headphone, but as a hands-free device. What's the difference? A hands-free device, in order to give microphone fidelity, HALVES the audio transmission quality of whatever you're receiving. Since we're NOT using the microphone, and Bluetooth already has lousy audio quality (and Qualcomm's AptX supposedly helps with that, but is obviously exclusive to Qualcomm chipsets) this is a very bad compromise. 

What Utilities for My Own PC?

If you've been on Youtube long enough, you've probably seen a couple videos where each Youtuber makes a list of "You Must Try These Programs". But chances are, only a few of them would be useful to you. 

Let me go through my own setup, and I'll explain why each of them are useful to me in one way or another. If it's not noted as freemium or paid, then it's free. Maybe you'll find something useful for yourself. I am on Windows 11. 

Photo by Sebastian Bednarek on Unsplash

Audio

NVIDIA Broadcast -- filters out noise from any microphone input or speaker output

Audacity -- the best sound editor and free 

Peace and EqualizerAPO -- a genuine equalizer for Windows

Video

NVIDIA Broadcast -- it will take background out of videos, blur them, replace them... 

Handbrake or Format Factory -- convert video (or audio) from one format to another

VLC Player or any other Media Player alternative -- playback most formats, online or off

DisplayFusion (freemium) -- manages multiple monitors with ease, task bar, wallpaper, and more

Davinci Resolve Free (paid available) or Shotcut or CapCut (freemium) -- video editor, CapCut is probably easiest but some functions locked away under freemium, ShotCut is a bit more professional, and Davinci Resolve is super powerful but complicated.

Clipboard

Clipboard Fusion -- hotkeys, transforms, triggers, sync, history... make your clipboard useful!

Desktop Customization

Wallpaper Engine (paid) -- live wallpaper that covers multiple monitors, that truly interact with you, playlists, support PC RGB lighting engine sync... 

Fences (freemium) -- automatically organize your desktop shortcuts and icons into groups, have them fade or vanish when not in use

Rainmeter -- customizable skin / widget you can place on your desktop

Launcher / File Manager / Explorer Alternative

Launchy  -- hit a hotkey to bring up a program launch bar by typing in partial name, no need to hunt in Windows desktop or start menu, supports skins. NOTE: Windows PowerToys have something similar, 

Double Commander -- a clone of the old Norton Commander                  

Text Expander

PhraseExpress or AutoHotKey

Define short phrases, and these programs will expand them into full sentences as you type them. AutoHotKey will also give you macro capability with your regular keyboard 

Mobile Link

Microsoft Phone Link -- Link your Android or iOS smartphone to your PC via Bluetooth and companion app, and get phone notifications on the PC, answer phone calls on PC, do SMS, etc. 

Offline Reader

Omnivore -- a free offline reader that also gives you FREE email addresses that you can cut off to kill off spam that won't let you unsubscribe. So your "mailing list" goes into your offline reader instead of your inbox. 

Office Suite

LibreOffice -- or any other similar suite such as OpenOffice, PolarisOffice, OnlyOffice, WPS Office, SoftMaker Office, and too many others to list. 

Zettlr -- think of it as a MUCH simplified version of Obsidian.md, it's all markdown files, and little else. 

Notepad++ -- it's just a much better notepad, but there are many other alternative text editors

Miscellaneous

WizFile -- search for any file on your HD(s) with very fast filtering (you can also try Everything)

WizTree -- display your HD's usage per folder... also very fast

Revo Uninstaller (freemium) -- Uninstaller, everybody needs one, the built-in is not good

And Microsoft PowerToys... 

Well, that's most of what I use. I hope you find something useful in here. 

Not So Crap Stuff from China: Generic "F9" True Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds with Charging case (and acts as battery bank for other stuff)

This is only Bluetooth 5.0, so it's being sold as low as $4.99... with free shipping by Amazon via their outlet, Woot.com. They sold out, but they have a slightly better version also for $4.99 (claims to have better battery life?). You don't expect much for $5, and this overdeliver at $5. 

It can recharge itself from the case in about 30-60 minutes, and one full charge should lasts you at least 3-4 hours of non-stop play-time. And the case itself should be able to recharge the earbuds at least 4-6 times. And I'm being relatively conservative. Oh, and it claims to act as a small 2000 mAh powerbank and has a USB-A output port (it charges via the old-fashioned MicroUSB though). 

The fit is relatively comfortable once I got both buds fitted  properly. The eargel portion goes into the canal, then rotate the body until it fits into the crook of the ear. It won't stand up to rigorous exercise, but it should not fall off with walking or stair climbing. If you need them to be tighter, you need better eargels, which you can find on Amazon. But that introduces us to the nags and niggles. 

Now for the nags and niggles... this thing is very sensitive to the size of the eargels. Beware, that if your eargels are too large, your buds won't fit back into the case and may not recharge. I tried replacing the eargels with foam tips... Won't fit nicely back into the case, even with pressure on the main lid. Also, the indicators of charge are pretty much junk. When it's out of power, it shows 2 out 4 bars. And one side runs out of power first (though only by a few minutes). And 2000 mAh battery... Who uses that? 

Still, it's great value for a measly $5. It may not looks as clean as the Xiaomi Airpod clone, but at least this ain't a "homage". And no, I won't pay $100-200 for earbuds, not even if its Bose or Sony. 

App Discovery: PEACE and EqualizerAPO for Windows -- what Microsoft should have included

Photo by David James on Unsplash

When you think about it, the sound system in Windows is extremely primitive. It doesn't even have treble/bass, much less an equalizer! 

That's where the free EqualizerAPO comes in. Yes, it's free. Yes, it works in almost ALL versions of Windows, including latest Win11. 

However, EqualizerAPO doesn't have a graphical interface, which is where PEACE comes in. This gives you EQ presets, hotkeys, and more so you can switch setup on the fly. 

Install EqualizerAPO first, then PEACE. 

Now enjoy your Windows audio PROPERLY.