Can't redirect microphone by rdp: No audio devices are installed

Question

I'm connecting from Windows 7 Ent to Windows Server 2008 R2. I followed several guides to setup audio redirection. Playback works, but no recording.

• "Record from this computer" checked on client
  

• microphone on client works

• "Windows Audio" service on server running
  

Now I have 2 options:

1. uncheck 2 audio-related options in RDP-Tcp Properties

2. allow audio redirection in group policy. This makes the above options grey.

I tried both options

• set "fDisableAudioCapture" = 0. It's already set to zero by unchecking in "RDP-Tcp Properties" dialog
  

• log off and log in

• open "Recording devices" and check "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices"

No audio devices are installed

Solution 1

Go to Administrative Tools / Server Manager / Roles / Add Roles. Add the Remote Desktop Services role. In the Role Services submenu add Remote Desktop Session Host. In the Client Experience submenu select "Audio and video playback" and "Audio recording redirection".

After installing this a Remote Audio device appears in the Recording tab.

Solution 2

I ran into the same issue. In order for it to work I had to change the registry setting on the Remote Desktop Client, not the host machine.

The following registry subkey can disable the Audio Recording Redirection feature:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp

fDisableAudioCapture REG_DWORD 0 | 1

In Windows 7 Enterprise Edition, this registry subey is set to 1 by default. Therefore, Audio Recording Redirection is not available.

In this case it would not help to set the policy value to Enabled. Instead, you must set the subkey to 0.

Comments

[aaz]

Thanks for making such a thorough post. I had the same problem and your post helped me zero in on the solution below.

[basin]

What? I wrote already that fDisableAudioCapture is 0

[basin]

Do you have devices on "Recording" tab on server?

[Kvothe]

Worked for me on Server 2012 R2! I couldn't find the Client Experience submenu so I had to enable those settings via the Group Policy editor as described at technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd759231.aspx though

[Deividson Damasio]

Worked for me on Windows Server 2019 Datacenter! I added only the Role Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host.

[Aleksandr]

Following this answer is dangerous! After adding the Remote Desktop Services role I've lost remote access to my 2012 R2 server. RDP connection failed with message "The remote session was disconnected because there are no Remote Desktop License Servers available to provide a license". The "solution" was removing the role via physical console.. Still no sound..