How to possibly fix a microphone that does not pick up sound in Windows 10
4This video will show you how to possibly fix a microphone that does not capture audio (such as that of your voice) in Windows 10. Open Control Panel (Click on the Windows START button, type CONTROL , then select CONTROL PANEL). With Control Panel open, in the upper right, ensure that View By is set to SMALL ICONS. Select the SOUND option. Under Sound, click on the RECORDING tab. Under Recording, any microphones that show a red down-arrow-icon are not eligible for use as they are not connected. Microphones with a green check-mark-icon are the active and selected microphone. If you have multiple eligible microphones listed and the microphone you wish to use is not selected, then right-click on the desired microphone and select SET AS DEFAULT DEVICE. Again, right-click on the same desired microphone and this time select SET AS DEFAULT COMMUNICATION DEVICE. If this doesn't solve your problem, left-click on the desired microphone entry to highlight it, and then click on PROPERTIES in the lower right. Select the LEVELS tab and ensure both the Microphone and Microphone Boost sliders are slid all the way to the maximum, then click on APPLY followed by OK. If this doesn't solve your problem, left-click on the desired microphone entry to highlight it, then click on PROPERTIES in the lower right. Click on the ADVANCED tab. Ensure both 'Give exclusive mode applications priority' and 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' are unchecked, then click on APPLY followed by OK. If this doesn't solve your problem, again under Sound, click on the COMMUNICATIONS tab. Under 'When Windows detects communications activity:' ensure that DO NOTHING is selected, then click on APPLY followed by OK. If this doesn't solve your problem, click on the Windows START button and then click on the gear-cog-icon SETTINGS option. Under Settings, select PRIVACY. On the left side, scroll down to MICROPHONE and select it. 'Allow apps to access your microphone' must be set to ON. Also, by scrolling down, the user can 'Choose which Microsoft Store apps can access your microphone'. Below this, the user should set 'Allow desktop apps to access your microphone' to ON. Finally, if this does not solve your problem, simply unplug and replug the microphone into the PC to reinitialize it with all of these new settings.