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Play Sound on a Windows VM in the Viewer
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When you're connecting to a Windows VM via RDP, the environment viewer lets you play and record sound on the remote VM. 

In order for sound on a Windows VM to play through the viewer, you first need to to make sure audio is enabled for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on the Windows VM. Use these instructions if you need to enable audio for RDP on the VM. Then you can enable sound on the VM in the environment viewer.

Enabling Audio over RDP on a Windows VM

To enable audio for Remote Desktop Protocol in a Windows virtual machine, follow the instructions for the version of Windows running on the machine.

Windows Server 2008 R2

Audio Playback

  1. Click Start > Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK.

    The Local Group Policy Editor appears.

  2. Expand Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Remote Desktop Services/Remote Desktop Session Host.

  3. Select Device and Resource Redirection. 

  4. Double-click Allow audio and video playback redirection. In the window that opens, click  Enabled and then Apply.

    The state of the Allow audio and video playback redirection setting changes to Enabled.

  5. Restart the virtual machine.

Audio Recording

  1. Click Start > Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK.

    The Local Group Policy Editor appears.

  2. Expand Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Remote Desktop Services/Remote Desktop Session Host.

  3. Select Device and Resource Redirection. 

  4. Double-click Allow audio recording redirection. In the window that opens, click Enabled and then Apply.

    The state of the Allow audio recording redirection setting changes to Enabled.

  5. Click  Start > Run, type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor appears.

    Locate the key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp and ensure that value for flag fDisableAudioCapture is set to 0.

  6. Click  Start > Run, type ServerManager and click OK.The  Server Manager appears.

    From the menu tree on the left, click Roles > Add Roles and then Server Roles.  A list of Roles appears. 

    Enable the  Remote Desktop Services checkbox.

    Under the Remote Desktop Services menu item, click Role Services and enable the Remote Desktop Session Host checkbox.

    Click Client Experience and enable the following checkboxes:

    • Audio and video playback

    • Audio recording redirection

  7. Restart the virtual machine.

  8. When configuration is completed, a recording device will be listed in the system Sound dialog, as shown below:

    audio_recording_sound_drivers_dialog_061118.png

Note

When audio recording is enabled, the user will be prompted to allow use of the local microphone when connecting to the VM. If permission is not granted to use the local microphone, audio will not be sent from the local machine to the VM, however a Device for recording audio will still be enabled on the VM.

Windows Server 2012 R2

  1. Right-click Start > Run, type gpedit.msc, and click OK.

    The Local Group Policy Editor appears.

  2. Expand Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Remote Desktop Services/Remote Desktop Session Host.

  3. Select Device and Resource redirection. 

  4. Double-click Allow Audio and Video Playback redirection. 

  5. In the Allow audio and video playback redirection window, click Enabled and then Apply.

    The state of the Allow Audio and Video Playback Redirection setting changes to Enabled.

  6. Restart the virtual machine.

Windows Server 2016

  1. Right-click Start > Run, type gpedit.msc, and click OK.

    The Local Group Policy Editor appears.

  2. Expand Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Remote Desktop Services/Remote Desktop Session Host.

  3. Select Device and Resource redirection. 

  4. Double-click Allow Audio and Video Playback redirection. 

  5. In the Allow audio and video playback redirection window, click Enabled and then Apply.

    The state of the Allow Audio and Video Playback Redirection setting changes to Enabled.

  6. Restart the virtual machine.

Enabling Sound in the Viewer

In the Environment Viewer (click View or View VM in the environment's details page to open the viewer), under Remote Access Controls, change the sound setting in the Sound dropdown:

  • Disabled  (default). No sound is played.

  • Enabled. When software on the VM uses the sound card, sound is played in the viewer.

  • Enabled with high quality. When software on the VM uses the sound card, sound is played in the viewer with higher quality.

When you change the setting, the RDP connection to the VM is reinitiated. 

Note

If you do not see this feature for a Windows VM, please contact Support and ask us to enable it for you.

Note

The default setting is configurable per environment or snapshot. For details, see Customizing VM Tabs.

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