Stereo Mix/What u hear in Windows Live Messenger 9/MSN

Kudos goes to http://sites.google.com/site/gencoreoperative/index/articles-and-hacks/wlm-9-stereo-mix-voiceclip, reposting it here to help spread this excellent knowledge and to clarify a few steps.

I was pretty excited over Windows Live Messenger 9 when it came out, but was greatly disappointed when I saw that Stereo Mix was gone. Apparently streaming ten second low quality clips counts as copyright infringement.
Most of the times I resorted to downloading an earlier version which still allowed Stereo Mix, but doing so sacrificed the new design and features.

After installing Windows 7 I figured I couldn’t be the only one missing stereo mix. After googling around for roughly thirty minutes I finally found the guide I linked to earlier in this post. The reason I’m rewriting it is because it’s not all that descriptive on some steps. Anyway here it is, as a simple step-by-step guide:

  1. 1. Open the registry editor
    ( Start -> Run -> regedit OR windows button + R -> regedit )
  2. 2. Navigate the registry editor to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\UCCPlatform\WindowsLiveMessenger
  3. 3. Minimize the registry editor and open your sound properties and go to the Recording tab
    ( Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Sound OR right click the speaker icon in your systray -> Recording devices )
  4. 4. Double click ( OR right click -> Properties ) Stereo Mix or What u hear
    Take note of the name in the editable text box, as well the text under Controller Information

    Stereo Mix Properties

    Stereo Mix Properties

  5. 5. Go back to the registry editor, right click the AudioCapture node -> New -> Key, name it as such: <Sound input name> (<Controller Information>)
    For example in my case I’d name the key “Stereo Mix (Realtek High Definition Audio)”, check the image above and you’ll most likely get it.
    REMEMBER the name you just set it to, we’ll use it later
  6. 6. Select the newly created node and where the (Default) key is right click the white area -> New -> DWORD(32-bit) Value, name it DefaultVolume

    Regedit showing the newly created node

    Regedit showing the newly created node

  7. 7. Double click the newly created key and change the value to ffff and click OK
  8. 8. Click the WindowsLiveMessenger node. Then double click the PrefAudioCapture key. Remember the AudioCapture node name? (Check step.5) Set the value to that.
    (If the PrefAudioCapture key doesn’t exist then open Windows Live Messenger -> Tools -> Audio and Video setup and click Finish, then go back to reg edit and hit F5 to refresh)

  9. Regedit showing the PrefAudioCapture key

    Regedit showing the PrefAudioCapture key

  10. 9. Restart Windows Live Messenger
  11. 10. From the main Windows Live Messenger window, press alt to bring down the menu -> Tools -> Audio and Video setup
  12. 11. Close the window by pressing the X button, don’t press Next or Finish It wont show Stereo Mix anywhere in the audio and video setup, but that’s normal.

And done! Now you should be able to record clips from your Stereo Mix/What u hear input.

38 Comments to “Stereo Mix/What u hear in Windows Live Messenger 9/MSN”

  1. Orpheus 15 November 2009 at 11:52 pm #

    This did the trick for voice clips… But it still doesn’t work for using stereo mix during calls, which is what I really needed. Microsoft really screwed us over with this…

  2. Deruu 16 November 2009 at 7:36 am #

    Yeah it’s pretty sad that it has to come to this. But I wouldn’t blame Microsoft too much, it’s more the fault of those paranoid record companies.

  3. luigitec 21 November 2009 at 8:37 am #

    THanx. It worked!

  4. Demonight 22 November 2009 at 7:51 am #

    5 stars to you my friend =) Really thxfor this !

  5. Jaybuz 27 November 2009 at 4:49 am #

    Ewww, just use pidgin.

  6. user 11 December 2009 at 2:46 pm #

    This solved my problem :D Thanks a bunch!

  7. Oddie 23 December 2009 at 1:51 pm #

    Thanks man, it worked for me also!

  8. Standard 31 December 2009 at 3:01 pm #

    Many thanks for this, you’re a legend!

  9. bluwy 15 January 2010 at 2:10 am #

    Thanks so much. *__* I was almost going crazy because of this problem.

  10. Mikkel 16 January 2010 at 8:45 pm #

    Thanks a bunch! I’ve been crying all day since I got windows live because I needed stereomix

  11. Anders 18 January 2010 at 3:02 am #

    Thanks a million!

  12. bric 22 January 2010 at 8:17 am #

    Thanks for this!

    You forgot to mention that older versions are forcing you to update to 9. You can somewhat bypass this with certain Compatibility Modes, but induces a lot of glitches, such as being unable to move the volume control sliders in Audio/Video config (WLM shouldn’t control/change volume control anyway!) – Also, some modes don’t even let you open the config dialog. Random crashes and instability.

    My Windows 7 doesn’t even have Stereo Mix from the Windows Drivers, so hopefully the Realtek drivers that I had in Vista and need to install still work.

    This will be good for me, since all I ever use are Voice Clips with Stereo Mix.

  13. Deruu 22 January 2010 at 4:11 pm #

    Drivers are needed for Stereo mix to show up, you also have to enable showing of disabled devices and enable stereo mix.

  14. thankzz 30 January 2010 at 7:30 am #

    THANKZZZ A LOTT IT REALLY WORKSS MANN

  15. HtheB 30 January 2010 at 9:08 pm #

    Works perfect!

    Thanks!

  16. Terrum 18 February 2010 at 7:25 pm #

    My Stereo Mix shows up fine and works fine on voice clips when stereo mix is set to default. But on the Audio/Video Setup it says Disabled and i can’t change it to Stereo mix. Someone help? Thanks.

  17. Terrum 18 February 2010 at 7:49 pm #

    It only works with voice clips. Not calls :(

  18. murat 24 February 2010 at 3:03 am #

    thank you man

  19. Luka 25 February 2010 at 7:04 pm #

    Thank you for this!!! It’s working as we speak :D

  20. Virago 7 March 2010 at 1:00 pm #

    @Terrum
    yup you’re right man. Any fix to make it work with calls?

  21. DreaminLife 13 March 2010 at 10:17 pm #

    Thank you so much , man! It works! Thanks!

  22. Deruu 15 March 2010 at 11:43 am #

    @Virago
    I’m not aware of any fixes for calls, but if you’re looking to Stream music to friends then I’d suggest you set up a shoutcast server.
    http://www.shoutcast.com/download

  23. Kali 21 March 2010 at 7:16 am #

    Am I the only one here that did this step by step and it doesn’t work? :(

    My drivers are updated to the most recent one, however where it says “Realtek High Definition Audio” I have a “2-” in front of it. I’ll upload a pic:

    http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/1845/stereomixproblem.jpg

    I don’t get it, my sound and microphones work right, but stereo mix just won’t budge. When I do the last step to open up the audio and video menu on MSN it shows either FrontMic or Microphone. Either way, none works with stereo mix, but they do work normally though.

    Help! I miss playing voice clips :(

  24. Cheeze 30 March 2010 at 9:09 pm #

    GOODD SHOW old chap works well. My littlee setting stereo mix as default device seemed to stop working

  25. DAC 18 April 2010 at 3:57 am #

    omg dude thanks a lot thanks a lot A LOT!

  26. Kevin Gelking 19 April 2010 at 11:02 am #

    OMG! THIS WORKED! FINALLY! Like “How to enable X in Win7″ would help! It’s the new MSN that’s the purest bullshit!

    A big chainsaw up your ass, microsoft! And a thousand gentle blowjobs to the autor!
    Man I’m SO happy this FINALLY works!
    Finally recording sounds at decent quality WITHOUT waking up the whole house because the microphone is so deaf. xD Thank you a lot <3

  27. Me 23 April 2010 at 9:18 pm #

    Thanks man it worked

  28. Anonymous Coward 25 April 2010 at 1:35 pm #

    Is Microsoft seriously doing this due to copyright reasons? I find that hard to believe, especially when there’s a fucking file transfer option built in to the damn client. It has to be some sort of weird technical limitation, nobody is that stupid, I’m going to have to bust out IDA and see how it decides which audio devices are “suitable”.

  29. Sam 2 May 2010 at 2:24 am #

    THANK YOU!
    was goin nuts.
    nice nice nice!

  30. Red_Lehari 9 May 2010 at 8:58 pm #

    It worked but now the mic don’t work on MSN =/

  31. Asuka 10 May 2010 at 3:54 am #

    Are you god? Ty!!!!!!!!!!!!

  32. Fernando Nectoux 22 May 2010 at 5:57 am #

    Greetings from Brazil! Dude, you rock, thank you so much!

  33. AGSS 19 June 2010 at 3:17 pm #

    thx friend :)

  34. Maiik 4 July 2010 at 5:04 am #

    Oh man Thaaaank u so much friend.. its working perfect :D

  35. Sebastian 21 July 2010 at 9:08 am #

    Does not work for me in windows live calls, but it works when i send sounds while im playing music, messenger send the music that im hearing, but doesnt work while im in a Audio Call. I did all the tutorial, but when i click Audio and video tools it says “disabled”. Can u help me?

  36. king 22 July 2010 at 6:02 pm #

    its works !!!
    thx man
    windows 7-64bit
    realtek . :)

  37. Nick 7 August 2010 at 6:20 pm #

    Funny thing my Stereo Mix was working fine a while back, but today I just realized it wasn’t working anymore.

    Tried this and it worked. Thanks a lot.

  38. Cheers 1 September 2010 at 10:27 pm #

    Works… Thanks alot man.


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