Microphone settings in Windows 8

Learn how to check if your microphone is set up correctly, and how to fix the settings if it's not.

If your microphone doesn't seem to be working, or if you used our microphone test and the line doesn't move, your microphone settings must be incorrect.

Follow the steps below to check what is wrong:

Step 1Bring your cursor to the top right corner of your desktop. A menu will appear. Click settings in the menu, as shown in the image below.

Step 2: Settings menu will appear, click Control Panel.

Step 3Click Devices and Sound.

Step 4: Under Sound, click Manage Audio Devices.

Step 5: Click the Recording tab.

Step 6The list of recording devices will appear. Try speaking into your microphone, and see if the green bars go up when you speak. (See screenshot).

• If the green bars go up while you talk, that means your microphone is set up correctly (What to do if my microphone still doesn't work even though it says it's set up correctly?)
• If the green bars do not go up when you speak into the microphone, continue following the instructions.

Step 7Check if it can recognize your microphone in the device list. Click the corresponding device to highlight it, and then click “Set as Default.”

Step 8Double-click the device in the list. The Microphone Properties window will appear. Click the Levels tab.

Step 9: Drag the slider all the way to the right, until the number 100 is displayed next to it.

• Click OK.

Step 10: Now check again if the green bars move when you talk into the microphone: if so, your microphone is now configured correctly. If you tried this process for all devices but the green bars still do not move, click here.

What to do if you see the green bars moving but your microphone still doesn't work in some program?

If you see the green bars moving, it means that your microphone is definitely working and Windows recognizes it. To verify this, you can test your microphone on our main page. The problem now is in the settings of that specific program – you could be listening to the wrong microphone, or perhaps the input volume is too low.

Try playing with the program settings, if you can't get it to work, contact the support team of the program developers

What to do if the green bars do not increase on any device?

If your microphone doesn't seem to be working, or if you tried our microphone test and the line wouldn't move, something must be wrong with your microphone settings.

Follow the steps below to check what is wrong:

Step 1: Right click on the Recording tab (steps 1-4). A menu will appear. Click the Show disabled devices option.

This should add additional devices to the list. Apply steps 5-13 on those devices as well, until you see the green bars move when you speak into the microphone.

This is the end of this guide