Disable audio enhancements for a device in Windows 7

Windows 7 allows you to use enhancements with your audio hardware devices. For example, you can make the speakers use various sound effects like loudness equalization, headphone virtualization etc. Using these enhancements consumes extra CPU power, making your PC slower. If you are using these enhancements, then you can disable all these audio enhancements to improve your PC performance. Here is how :

  1. Press the key combination Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog.
  2. Type mmsys.cpl in the Run dialog and press Enter.

  3. In the Sound window, select a recording device (listed under the Recording tab) or select a playback device (listed under the Playback tab). Double-click on the selected device to open the Properties of the selected device. Alternatively, you can also click on the Properties button at the bottom.

  4. In the Properties windows of the selected device, select the tab labeled Enhancements.
  5. Check the checkbox labeled Disable all sound effects as shown,

  6. Click OK to save the settings.

Please note that you have to repeat the process for every device for which you want to disable audio enhancements.

One comment

  1. I don’t have a tab labeled “Enhancements”. What do I do to enable it?

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