Realtek HD Audio and Windows 7 generic driver - need best of both

kkoves

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
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10,510
I have an MSI GE70 laptop with a four-speaker setup, it's split up as two separate stereo speakers. With the default Realtek HD Audio Manager, it shows up as just one speaker, and when I plug in a headphone, that also shows as a speaker, so if I accidentally unplug my headphones, the speakers start going in their place, which is undesirable in a school setting where I use my headphones a lot.

That is where the advantage of the Windows 7 generic audio driver lies: it has separate profiles for headphones and speakers, so I can have separate volumes on the headphones and speakers, so the speakers won't go off even if my headphones get unplugged. On the other hand, Windows 7 has a flaw (in my opinion, it's a flaw, anyway) in its audio system that only one device can be labeled as a default, and since it detects my speakers as two separate devices, it can only play through one of them at once. I have found a workaround, by using VAC (Virtual Audio Cable), but it is rather inconvenient for a permanent setup.

Is there any way I can make use of the best of both of these drivers so that I can use both stereo speakers and have a separate volume for headphones?

My apologies for the long title and description, I wanted to be as detailed as possible...

EDIT: I have an idea: is there some program I could use to listen to Windows events (in this case, the "audio device unplugged" notification from Realtek software) and have something happen when that event is triggered (in this case, mute the speakers)?