How to Hide or Show Disabled Sound Devices in Settings on Windows 11

Option One

Hide or Show Disabled Sound Devices in Settings

1. Press the Win and the I key together (Win+I) to open Settings. The Settings⚙️ window opens.
2. Click System on the left side of the screen, then click Sound on the right side. You should now see your output and input devices and the volume controls.

3. Scroll down to the Advanced section and click All sound devices. A page opens listing every output and input device Windows knows about.

Open “All sound devices” Settings

4. Look under System defaults and click Show devices for flow on this page to open the menu. If this option is not there, your build probably doesn’t include the feature yet.
5. Turn the switch on to show disabled audio devices, or turn it off to hide them. Showing them is the default setting. The device list on the page updates to match.

When the setting is on, disabled devices appear in the list of devices on the page. When it is off, they disappear from the list. The devices are not removed from your system either way. They are only hidden from view, so you can flip the switch back at any time to undo the change.

6. Close the Settings window when you finish. The change applies right away, so you don’t need to restart.

That’s it. You now control whether disabled sound devices show up on the All sound devices page, and you can reverse the choice whenever you like.

Option Two

Hide or Show Disabled Sound Devices in Settings using Registry Editor

1. Back up the registry or create a restore point before you edit anything. A wrong change in the registry can cause problems.
2. Search for Registry Editor in the Start menu⊞ and open it. Approve the User Account Control prompt if it appears.
3. Go to the 🗝️HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Multimedia\Audio\DeviceCplcopy path. You can paste the path into the address bar at the top of the window. The values for that key appear in the right pane.
4. Find the ShowDisabledDevices value and double-click it. The Edit dialog opens.
5. Set the value data to 1 to show disabled audio devices, or to 0 to hide disabled sound devices from your main list. Click OK.
6. Close Registry Editor and reopen Settings › Sound › All sound devices to check the result. If nothing changes, sign out and back in.

That’s it. The ShowDisabledDevices value now holds the setting you chose. To undo the change, set the value back to the number you started with. This path is under 🗝️HKEY_CURRENT_USERcopy, so it affects only your own user account.

If your build lacks the new Settings option, the classic Sound control panel still works on all Windows 11 builds. It is the older Sound dialog that has been part of Windows for years, and it has its own switch for disabled devices.

1. Press Win+R to open the Run box.
2. Type mmsys.cpl and press Enter. The Sound dialog opens.
3. Click the Playback tab for speakers and headphones, or the Recording tab for microphones.
4. Right-click an empty area of the device list. A small context menu🖱️ appears.
5. Click Show Disabled Devices. A tick means disabled devices are shown, and no tick means they are hidden. Repeat the click to switch it back.
6. Click OK to close the dialog.

That’s it. You have shown or hidden disabled devices in the classic Sound dialog. While they are visible, you can right-click a disabled device and choose Enable to turn it back on.

Summary

This tutorial showed how to hide or show disabled sound devices in Windows 11 using the Settings app, Registry Editor, or the classic Sound control panel. Use Settings if your build has the option. Use the registry method only if you are comfortable editing it, and use Show Disabled Devices in the classic dialog on any build.