Right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar and open Sound settings. If your headset is in the list under Choose where to play sound, Windows can see it and is simply playing somewhere else. If it is not in the list, Windows is not seeing the device at all. Those are two different problems and the second half of this page will waste your time if you have the first.
Windows sees it and plays elsewhere
If Windows lists the headset, checking its selected output and volume usually takes about thirty seconds. Sound settings is at Settings → System → Sound, or available by right-clicking the speaker icon.
- 1. Select the headset under Choose where to play sound. Windows does not always move to a device you just plugged in, and it often moves back when you unplug and replug it.
- 2. Check the volume of that device, not just the master volume. Each output keeps its own level. A headset at zero looks identical to a headset that is broken.
- 3. Scroll to Volume mixer and look at the app. Individual applications can be muted, or pointed at a different output than the rest of Windows. The mixer shows both, per app.
- 4. If the microphone is the problem, do the same under Input. Sound settings lists inputs separately, and a headset that plays audio perfectly can still have Windows recording from the laptop’s built-in microphone.
Windows does not see it at all
- Show the hidden ones first. Sound settings → All sound devices lists outputs and inputs that are disabled, with a button to turn each one back on. A disabled device is invisible in the normal picker, so it reads as missing hardware.
- For a 3.5 mm jack, try the rear socket. Front-panel sockets run through a separate header inside the case, and some audio consoles ship with front-panel jack detection turned off. If the headset works at the back and not the front, that is the cause and not the headset.
- For a USB headset, change the port and skip the hub. A USB headset is its own sound card. Plugged into a hub or a monitor it can enumerate intermittently, which looks exactly like a dead device.
- For Bluetooth, confirm it is connected rather than paired. Settings → Bluetooth & devices. Paired means Windows knows it; connected means it is usable now. Headsets that were last connected to a phone often pair without connecting.
- Then look at the driver. Device Manager → Audio inputs and outputs and Sound, video and game controllers. If your headset appeared after a Windows update and stopped working, Properties → Driver → Roll Back Driver is the first thing to try. Download the audio driver from your PC maker before uninstalling anything, so you are not left with no sound at all.
A Bluetooth headset is two devices
With classic Bluetooth audio, Windows may expose separate stereo and hands-free paths. Using the headset microphone switches playback to the hands-free path and lowers audio quality. On Windows 11 24H2 and newer, compatible PCs and headsets with Bluetooth LE Audio can keep stereo playback while the microphone is active.
A Bluetooth headset whose microphone does not work is usually connected in stereo mode. If its audio quality drops sharply during a call, a meeting app may have switched it to hands-free mode to use the microphone. Why Bluetooth headsets sound bad on calls goes through that trade-off and what to do about it.
Windows is fine and only the meeting app is silent
Teams, Zoom, Meet and Discord can each keep their own speaker and microphone selection instead of using the current Windows default. A headset selected in Windows sound settings can still be ignored by the one application you are about to use.
Each app keeps that choice in its own settings — Devices in Teams, Audio in Zoom, the gear icon in a Meet call. Set it in both places. The same split causes a camera or microphone that works in Windows and not in the meeting app.
The audio troubleshooter is not where the old guides say
Microsoft is deprecating the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool and the legacy troubleshooters that ran on it, including the audio one. Settings → System → Troubleshoot → Other troubleshooters still exists, but the audio entry now hands off to the Get Help app, which runs the checks itself. Guides that tell you to launch the old troubleshooter directly increasingly end at a redirection notice. As of September 2026, start from Settings and follow where it sends you.
Why it keeps coming back
Docking, undocking, waking from sleep and connecting a headset can change which devices exist, causing Windows to select a different default. The setting may take thirty seconds to fix, but the change often becomes apparent only when a call starts.
CallReady is designed to identify that change before a call. One click from the system tray confirms that the microphone receives a signal, flags input that is too quiet or clipping, and checks that an audio output device is available. It remembers the devices from your last successful check and reports by name when Windows has switched to a different speaker or microphone.
It does not install a driver or unmute an app. It reports which device Windows is going to use so you can change it before the call.