I want to standardize muting for a web conferencing tool…. “Video conference mute” that turns on/off the camera and microphone with one key – increase productivity! How to use PowerToys-Window Forest

This series introduces the functionality of Microsoft’s “PowerToys” productivity suite for power users. This time, we will focus on “Mute Video Conference”, which is useful for online meetings.

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Mute Video Conference is useful for online meetings

Mute Video Conference is useful for online meetings

Online conference has become quite familiar due to the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, but sometimes the problem is identifying different solutions depending on the other party. “Zoom”, “Google Meet”, “Microsoft Teams”… each have a different user interface, so some people may feel confused about the process each time. Regardless of the unique functions of each service, I would like you to standardize the operations, at least for the basic video and audio controls.

Therefore, I’d like you to consider using the “Video Conference Mute” registered with “PowerToys”. With this, it is possible to turn the microphone/camera on/off at the system level. It’s hard to remember the key combination because it uses keyboard shortcuts, but I’m thankful that any online meeting app can handle it with a unified process.

Also, even if the microphone and camera are turned off from the app side, it looks like there is a service that actually sends audio and video out just by not telling the other party, but if you disable it with this functionality, it will. Blindfolded by the camera as there is. So you don’t have to worry about privacy.

This function is disabled in the initial state. To use it, you must explicitly enable the feature on the Mute conference screen of the Settings screen. Also, when using “Mute Video Conference”, “PowerToys” must be run with administrator privileges. If you do not have admin privileges, you need to restart “PowerToys” with admin privileges from the . section[عام]from the settings preset screen. By the way, it is a good idea to set PowerToys to start at system startup.

Disabled in the initial state. PowerToys must be run with administrator privileges

Restart PowerToys with administrator privileges from the General section of the Settings screen.

The default hotkeys for Video Conference Mute are: You can change it if you don’t like it, but be careful not to press it with other keyboard shortcuts.

• keys[Windows]+[Shift]+[Q]: Turn on/off both audio and video at the same time
• keys[Windows]+[Shift]+[A]: On/off switch for microphone only
• keys[Windows]+[Shift]+[O]: On/Off switch for camera only

When you turn on / off / turn off the microphone / camera using a keyboard shortcut, a small indicator toolbar appears in the upper right corner of the desktop, showing information about the current microphone and camera.

Enabling the feature explicitly on the part of the user

Disable the microphone and the camera at the same time using the keys[Windows]+[Shift]+[Q]

In the initial state, it is set to be displayed in the upper right part of the main screen, but you can view it on all screens or select the position to display.

You can view it on all screens or choose the position to display. In fact, you can select the image to display instead when the camera is turned off, but it does not work in the edit section environment.

The “Video Conference Mute” function uses the operating system’s global audio control API to control the microphone, but uses the default camera driver (Powertoys VCM) to control the camera. When the camera is muted, the video is blocked by the default camera transmitting the app and the physical camera.

So, when using “Video Conference Mute” in the online meeting app, note that the video source (camera) should be a virtual camera instead of a physical camera (microphone setting is not required). Not available for some online meeting services that do not support virtual cameras.

About Skype. Set the video source to PowerToys Video Conference Mute.

About Google Dead.This feature is not available because the video source cannot be changed to a default camera

Microsoft PowerToys is an open source project hosted on GitHub and licensed under the MIT License. It is currently available as a free download from the GitHub project page and Microsoft Store. The supported operating system is Windows 11 and Windows 10 version 1903 and later. Please note that only the 64-bit version is provided.