Hyper-V Troubleshooting: Enabling Audio Over RDP

Hyper-V Troubleshooting: Enabling Audio Over RDP

In some scenarios, such as test and application development, you may need to emulate a sound card in the VM (virtual machine). In Hyper-V there is no way to emulate a sound card. To use a "virtual sound card" in a VM, you must enable audio over RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) on Windows server 2008 or 2008 R2 host system. When you connect to the VM using RDP you can then run an audio program on the VM and have the sound redirected to the local computer.

 

Change Remote Desktop Connection Settings for Windows 7

  • Start Remote Desktop Connection (type mstsc.exe on the command line)
  • Click Options

  • Click the Local Resources tab
  • Under Remote audio, click Settings... then click Play on this Computer

  • Click OK, then Connect to login to the VM
  • You should hear the login sound

To configure audio for all Windows applications over RDP:

  1. Open the sound control panel (Start-> (Settings->) Control Panel-> Sounds and Audio Devices)
  2. Select Audio
  3. Select Microsoft RDP Audio Driver for the default playback device
  4. Click the Use only default devices checkbox
  5. Click Voice
  6. Select Microsoft RDP Audio Driver for the default playback device
  7. Click OK
For Windows Server 2008 R2:
  1. Open the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration MMC (Start -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration)
  2. Double-click RDP-Tcp in the Connections panel
  3. Click Client Settings, clear the "Audio and video playback" and "Audio recording" checkbox

If this does not work, check with your IT Administrator to see if there is a An Active Directory group policy in effect that disables Audio and Video redirection over RDP. Ask the administrator to remove this policy for the target machine.

To see all policies in effect on the target machine, on the command line type:

gpresult /H c:\temp\gp.html

 

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  • FZB edited Revision 6. Comment: double space

  • FZB edited Revision 5. Comment: typo

  • FZB edited Revision 4. Comment: typo

  • tonysoper_MSFT edited Revision 3. Comment: + Win7 Screenies

  • tonysoper_MSFT edited Revision 2. Comment: updated with suggested edits from communitygp.html

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  • I didn't know that we can do that, thanks for the tip :-)

  • It was the group policy which disabled it. After changing the policy audio works fine!

  • FZB edited Revision 6. Comment: double space

  • FZB edited Revision 5. Comment: typo

  • FZB edited Revision 4. Comment: typo

  • tonysoper_MSFT edited Revision 3. Comment: + Win7 Screenies

  • Thanks _Heebr_ I have updated the article with your suggestions.

  • tonysoper_MSFT edited Revision 2. Comment: updated with suggested edits from communitygp.html

  • I think I found the problem. An Active Directory group policy disables Audio and Video redirection over RDP. Asked the administrator to remove this policy, but this takes some time. Will get back in touch to report the results.

    FYI, I used the following command to get all the policies that are applied to the machine:

    gpresult /H c:\temp\gp.html

  • Unfortunately, my Windows Server 2008 R2 VM (under Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1) does not let me enable "Audio and video playback". Both Audio services are running (Windows Audio, Windows Audio Endpoint builder). In group policy (gpedit.msc) is "Allow audio and video playback redirection" enabled. But under tab "Client settings" for RDP-TCP connections (tsconfig.msc) "Allow audio and video playback redirection" stays grayed out.

    My RDP sessions won't give me audio, they keep saying "No audio device installed"

    Help!?

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