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ShowAudioDevice

Tray indicator and one-click switcher for the default playback device

windows tray audio Personal

ShowAudioDevice is a small Windows utility for people who regularly switch between headphones, speakers and monitor audio. Its notification-area icon shows the kind of playback device currently selected, so you can check the output without opening Windows sound settings. A quick click switches devices, while the menu lets you choose a specific output.

  • Identify the current default playback device from its tray icon.
  • Hover over the icon to read the selected device’s name.
  • Left-click to switch between headphones and speakers.
  • Right-click to choose from all active playback devices.
  • See the indicator update when the default output changes.
  • Enable startup with Windows or optional change notifications.

How to start: download and run the app, then use its notification-area icon.

Changelog

Changelog

All notable changes to ShowAudioDevice, newest first.

1.2.0 — 2026-11-08

Features

  • Seven headphone icons (over-ear, on-ear, open-back, headset with mic, gaming headset, earbuds, neckband) so different headphones can be told apart at a glance.
  • Pick an icon per device in the new Device icons submenu (device, then icon or Automatic). The choice is remembered per device in settings.json (deviceIcons) and also shows next to the device in the menu.

Changes

  • Devices named like earbuds, buds, AirPods or in-ear now get the earbuds icon and "gaming" devices the gaming headset icon automatically; all other headphones keep the original icon.

Bug fixes

  • None.

1.1.0 — 2026-11-02

Features

  • Choose which devices a left click switches between: tick them in the new Left click cycles through submenu. The click then cycles through the connected ones in name order; unplugged devices are skipped. The choice is saved in settings.json (cycleDeviceIds) and --toggle follows it too.

Changes

  • With no devices chosen, a left click still toggles between headphones and speakers as before.
  • The log records the version at every start.

Bug fixes

  • The first right-click after the app started showed no menu.
  • After installing an update the old instance could keep running with a broken menu (every right-click failed until a restart) or the new one could fail to start; the old instance now exits at once and the new one waits for it.
  • Opening the menu no longer rewrites the "Start with Windows" registry entry and the settings file.

1.0.2 — 2026-09-24

Changed

  • The self-update library comes from nuget.org (TomLabs.AutoUpdate 0.3.2) instead of a git submodule; updates work as before.

1.0.1 — 2026-09-18

Changed

  • Update manifests from the TomLabs app store are now signed; the app verifies the signature with its embedded public key and ignores unsigned or tampered manifests.

1.0.0 — 2026-09-16

Added

  • Switch the default playback device: left-click the tray icon to toggle between headphones and speakers, or pick any active device from the menu.
  • Three device kinds with their own icon: headphones, speakers and monitor (HDMI/DisplayPort audio), matched by headphonePatterns / monitorPatterns in %APPDATA%ShowAudioDevicesettings.json (was hard-coded to GS3).
  • Tray icon follows the taskbar theme (white glyph on a dark taskbar, dark glyph on a light one).
  • Configurable headphone detection: headphonePatterns in %APPDATA%\ShowAudioDevice\settings.json (was hard-coded to GS3).
  • "Start with Windows", optional notification bubble on device change, "Edit settings" / "Reload settings".
  • Daily rolling log in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ShowAudioDevice\logs, level set in settings, "Open log folder" in the menu.
  • About dialog with version, channel and these notes; version also shown in the tray menu.
  • Self-update through TomLabs.AutoUpdate (stable / nightly channel) from the TomLabs app store feed; updateFeed in settings points at another store (local development).
  • Headless command line for hotkeys and Stream Deck: --list, --set <device>, --toggle.

Changed

  • Device changes are picked up from Core Audio notifications instead of polling every second.
  • Portable self-contained single-file build on .NET 10; new application icon.

Fixed

  • Icon handles leaked once per second; tray icon updated from a timer thread.