16 June, 2024 by Ashley

How to Enable Remote Desktop Audio?

You can enable Remote Desktop Audio for most Windows versions, including both personal and server versions.

This lets you hear audio played on the remote computer, like videos or music.

To do this, you need to enable sound redirection in the RDP settings on your local machine using the below steps:

Fire up the Remote Desktop.
Double-check the Windows Audio Service.
Turn on Audio in Remote Desktop.
Adjust Remote Desktop Properties.
Configure Audio for Applications.

Table of Contents

Quick Steps to Enable Remote Desktop Audio

If you’re having trouble with RDP audio, especially on servers, RDP VPS service can be the final solution.

Let’s go through the steps of this guide to Enable Audio over a remote desktop connection:

Step 1: Fire up Remote Desktop

Click on the Start menu or the Windows icon.
To launch the Remote Desktop Connection application, in the search bar, type:

mstsc.exe

Enter the IP address of your VPS and click “Connect“.

You’ll also need to enter your username (usually administrator) and password.

You should find this information in the setup email you received after your VPS was activated.

Step 2: Double-check the Windows Audio Service

Let’s see if the Windows Audio service is running on your VPS.

Go to the Start menu, type “Services.msc” and press enter.

Find “Windows Audio” on the list and double-click on it.

If it’s not already set to “Automatic“, change the “Startup type” to that and click “OK“.
Then, hit the “Start” button to get the service running right away.
Try playing some audio on your VPS.
If you hear it, then great! If not, move on to the next step.

Step 3: Turn on Audio in Remote Desktop

Open Remote Desktop and click “Show Options“.

Go to the “Local Resources” tab and click “Settings” under “Remote Audio“.

Make sure “Remote Audio Playback” is set to “Play on this computer“.
If you want to use the microphone on the remote computer, enable “Remote audio recording” as well.
If you hear the startup sound when you log in to the VPS, you can skip to the next step of application configuration. If not, keep reading.

Step 4: Adjust Remote Desktop Properties (for remote computer):

On the remote computer, open “tscc.msc“.

In the left panel, find the “Connections” folder and right-click on “RDP-Tcp“.
Choose “Properties” and then click on the “Client Settings” tab.
There’s a checkbox for “Audio Mapping“.
Make sure it’s checked. By default, audio is disabled on Remote Desktop, so you’ll want to enable it here.
Click “OK” and then close the window.
You might see a message saying this change won’t affect existing connections.
Just click “OK” on that message, log out, and log back in.
You should hear the startup sound now. If not, move on to the last step.

Step 5: Configure Audio for Applications

Let’s make sure all your applications on the VPS are set up for audio properly:

Open the sound control panel on the VPS and go to the “Audio” tab.
If it’s not already selected, choose “Microsoft RDP Audio Driver” as the default playback device.
There’s a checkbox at the bottom that says “Use Default Devices Only“.
Make sure that’s checked. Then go to the “Voice” tab and pick “Microsoft RDP Audio Driver” as the default playback system here as well.
Click “OK” to save these changes.

That’s it! You should now be able to hear audio from your VPS through your local computer whenever you use Remote Desktop.

Remote Desktop audio not working

Remote Desktop audio issues can be caused by a few things.

To solve it:

Check if the Windows Audio service is running on both the local and remote machines.
Enable “Remote Audio Playback” on your local machine’s Remote Desktop settings.
If you need microphone access, enable “Remote Audio Recording” as well.
Finally, ensure audio is configured correctly within your VPS applications.

If you’re still having trouble, consider restarting your computer or updating audio drivers.

Why is there no sound on my Remote Desktop connection?

There are several reasons why you might not hear audio:

Windows Audio Service: Ensure this service is running on both your local and remote machines.

Remote Audio Settings: Check if “Remote Audio Playback” is enabled in your local machine’s Remote Desktop settings.

Microphone access requires enabling “Remote Audio Recording” as well.

Application Audio Configuration: Make sure applications on the remote machine are set to use the “Microsoft RDP Audio Driver” for playback and recording.

How do I enable audio playback on Remote Desktop?

On your local machine, open Remote Desktop settings, go to “Local Resources,” and under “Remote Audio,” select “Play on this computer” for “Remote Audio Playback.”

How do I enable microphone access on Remote Desktop?

In the same Remote Desktop settings as above, under “Remote Audio,” enable the option “Remote Audio Recording.”

However, this feature might be limited on server versions of Windows.

Conclusion

The explained steps in this article must help enable Remote Desktop Audio. But if you still have no sound, restart your computer, update audio drivers, and update them on both local and remote machines.

Also, as an admin, you can check group policy settings which might be restricting audio redirection on the remote machine.