General Settings

The General tab controls how SoundSwitch behaves at the application level — from startup behavior and device cycling to notifications and updates.

Left Column: Behavior Settings

Start automatically with Windows

Registers SoundSwitch to run at login so it is always available to switch devices, enforce profiles, and apply app rules without manual intervention.

Systray Icon

Determines what icon the SoundSwitch tray icon displays.

Option	Behavior
Never	Always display the default SoundSwitch icon.
Recording	Show the icon of the active recording (microphone) device.
Playback	Show the icon of the active playback (speaker/headphone) device.
Both	Show the current device icons, alternating between playback and recording.

Double-click Action

Sets what happens when you double-click the tray icon.

Option	Behavior
Switch playback device	Cycles to the next available playback device.
Switch recording device	Cycles to the next available recording device.

Switch Default Communication Device

When enabled, switching the default playback device also switches the Windows Default Communication Device. Windows uses the communication device separately from the multimedia device — for example, VoIP apps like Discord or Skype may default to the communication device. Enabling this keeps both in sync when SoundSwitch changes devices.

Also switch the foreground program

When enabled, changing the default audio device also re-routes the currently focused (foreground) application to the new default device. This ensures the app you are actively using immediately follows the device change.

Keep volume level across devices

Windows stores volume levels independently per device. When this option is enabled, SoundSwitch preserves the current volume percentage on the source device and applies it to the destination device when switching. This prevents sudden volume jumps when moving between devices with different volume levels.

Quick Menu on hotkey

Instead of blindly cycling through devices every time you press the hotkey, enabling this option shows a visual selection menu. The hotkey opens the menu; pressing the hotkey again cycles the selection; releasing the hotkey activates the highlighted device.

Tooltip on Hover

Determines what information appears when you hover over the SoundSwitch tray icon.

Option	Tooltip shows
Playback Device	Name of the current default playback device.
Recording Device	Name of the current default recording device.
Both Devices	Names of both the current playback and recording devices.

Cycle through

Controls which devices are included when cycling through audio devices via hotkey or tray icon double-click.

Option	Behavior
All audio devices	Cycle through every detected device on the system.
Only selected audio devices	Cycle through only the devices you have checked on the Playback and Recording tabs. This is the recommended option for most users.

Right Column: Update & Language Settings

Update Settings

Controls how SoundSwitch checks for and applies new versions.

Option	Behavior
Install updates automatically	Download and apply updates without prompting.
Notify me when updates are available	Show a notification when a new version is available, allowing you to choose when to update.
Never check for updates	Disable automatic update checking entirely.

Include Beta versions

When enabled, SoundSwitch considers pre-release (beta) versions as available updates. Useful for testing upcoming features, but may introduce instability.

Telemetry

Allows SoundSwitch to send anonymized usage data to help improve the application.

Language

Sets the display language for the SoundSwitch interface. Changing this requires restarting the application for the new language to take effect.