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[VCM] VCM utility moving to legacy in 0.67 timeframe (updated from community feedback)
Update from crutkas:
Based on community feedback, we'll be shifting the decision from removing the feature to moving it into a legacy mode (maintenance only). This will still be in the 0.67 timeframe. Our team will only directly address critical bugs, security and accessibility issues.
We'll accept community PRs for enhancements but to date for VCM, has been small in comparison to others which was one of the supporting factors in our decision.
We love the community and feedback. Thank you for helping guide our decision.
What about Win10 users? They don't have the shortcut. I don't think removing the utility will make users happy.
Wait, but isn't this feature just for apps that support this. It doesn't work for all apps.
Also there is no feature for camera muting.
Chiming in after seeing that a deprecation warning is already in place with the most recent version. I have to be on Windows 10 for a while yet, so this will remove the feature with no replacement for me?
Also, +1 on the other comments (Win 11 shortcut doesn't work for all apps, and no replacement for camera mute).
EDIT: @yuyoyuppe is this actually gathering feedback, or is this a firm decision? The fact that all the related issues have been closed and linked to this issue makes me think this is a firm decision and not a feedback-gathering issue.
Yeah I'm confused too. I think the choice is quite definitive, so what kind of feedback do you want??? Discussions is the place for either an Announcement or a Poll.
This issue is the place to gather feedback like this.
I use Windows 11 and use VCM a lot when using Zoom. I love the new feature where the display stays on when on mute AND off-MUTE. Please do not deprecate as it is a valuable feature. For Win11, you should look at how you could tap into the mute button displayed in the taskbar to mute/unmute. Currently this only works with MS-Teams but I believe it would VCM could be tweaked to enhance this capablity in Win 11
EDIT: @yuyoyuppe is this actually gathering feedback, or is this a firm decision? The fact that all the related issues have been closed and linked to this issue makes me thing this is a firm decision and not a feedback-gathering issue.
Same feeling. I strongly hope to retain this feature. I am also a win11 user.
This issue is the place to gather feedback like this.
I use Windows 11 and use VCM a lot when using Zoom. I love the new feature where the display stays on when on mute AND off-MUTE. Please do not deprecate as it is a valuable feature. For Win11, you should look at how you could tap into the mute button displayed in the taskbar to mute/unmute. Currently this only works with MS-Teams but I believe it would VCM could be tweaked to enhance this capablity in Win 11
Also I just tested the global shortcut (win+alt+k) in windows 11 and it doe not work with zoom. You get a little pop-up that says "no supported apps in use for mic mute" for 2 secs and it disappears ...more reason NOT to deprecate VCM :)
What about Win10 users? They don't have the shortcut. I don't think removing the utility will make users happy.
Yes. totally agree. We would like to move to Win 11 but corporate world does not move that fast
Against the deprecation. The mic mute shortcut in Windows 11 is an opt-in from app developers, VCM was global and forced.
If nothing else, it could be released as a standalone app so that people don't have to keep old PT versions around if they need it.
You also don't remove Fancy Zones just because Windows 11 has now better window management. Conference Tool is a must have feature for PowerToys. The only app which supports Win + Alt + K is Microsoft Teams.
Lol, just now I wanted to start using VCM on my Windows 10 machine (I'm still on W10 for some more time), just because of the new 'hide when muted' feature. I really would like to use this feature on W10. What's the pain of keeping this feature for just W10 users? It probably requires a check though (code-related, to check whether the user is running W10 or W11, if that piece of code doesn't already exist).
Removing VCM completely because Windows 11 has a similar but worse feature doesn't make any sense, unless devs are planning on dropping support for Windows 10 outright. Might as well remove FancyZones, Image Resizer, Shortcut Guide and probably others since there's similar but worse ways to do some of that in Windows already.
@crutkas @yuyoyuppe If VCM will be removed after v0.67 then it's too soon to actually close all VCM issues already. We can lock issues in the mean time
Look, I'm just going to parrot the same things as everyone else (and add one more):
- Windows 10 exists
- VCM is superior to what Windows 11 has anyway, thanks to it working all of the time instead of contextually
- VCM is actually missing features, like Push-To-Talk and beeps when changing state
I think it is absolutely a mistake to remove VCM from PowerToys, especially as it is one of the major reason to install it in the first place.
Please continue to support VCM for at least Windows 10. This OS is still heavily used, as many PCs cannot be upgraded due to hardware requirements. This OS is also officially supported by Microsoft until Oct 14, 2025, so dropping support of VCM before then seems premature.
@yuyoyuppe Please don't remove this very useful feature, it's about the only feature I use in PowerToys.
As others already have pointed out the feature you refer to in Windows 11 is not the same, and it only supports Microsoft Teams. As much as Microsoft would like it, not everybody exclusively uses its video conferencing software. Removing this feature will certainly not "force me" over to MS-Teams, but it will take away my incentive to use PowerToys at all.
Strange justification for deprecation; Windows 11's tool is flaky at best and only works with audio. As others have said, FancyZones is a superset of Windows 11's new tiling window manager. Why can't Video Conference Mute remain in PowerToys, given it's a superset of the new, inconsistent audio mute button in Windows 11?
VCM has more uses than just muting in common video calling applications, it's the closest thing to a hardware mute.
Why remove something because it's "not needed" when the entire program is OPTIONAL software...
VCM isn't redundant with the windows 11 feature and is irreplaceable on windows 10
Also hope this isn't removed. I'm on Windows 10, and without a new PC I cannot move to Windows 11 (missing secure boot, TPM ect) and I use the VCM almost daily during my work calls, except for weekends - Even then actually when working on-call. Please don't remove it
Why remove something because it's "not needed" when the entire program is OPTIONAL software
Well ... there's one reason I know of ... VCM hasn't has any significant improvement for a long time, even though there are a number of things that should be improved. I'm gonna omit the argument about installation (file) size.
Why remove something because it's "not needed" when the entire program is OPTIONAL software
Well ... there's one reason I know of ... VCM hasn't has any significant improvement for a long time, even though there are a number of things that should be improved. I'm gonna omit the argument about installation (file) size.
My uneducated guess with that is it since it took so long to get out of being experimental, it'll be a pain to maintain
The decision to remove the VCM feature from PowerToys is in my opinion, not a great choice. The built-in feature in Win11 isn't on par with the one you currently have in PowerToys. only muting the microphone in "supported" apps rather than system-wide is a MAJOR and I quote MAJOR downgrade. If the VCM feature from PowerToys should be removed, then the built-in version of it in Win11 should act just like it, not as a downgrade.
I'm not using Windows 11, so there's no alternative in Windows 10. Windows 11 build-in mic mute is not 100% replacement for VCM either. And, to be frank, VCM is the only thing I'm using PowerToys for, and the only I got started using PowerToys in the first place. I have it bound to a mouse button, I can mute my microphones once an for all without worrying if app has a global mute or not. I have it bound to a button on my wheel, to mute/unmute microphone during gaming, etc. etc. Ditching VCM is a dumbest decision ever, sorry.. hands down!
I agree with what people are saying, VCM is insanely useful to me running on W10. I probably won't be updating to any later versions of PowerToys if this feature is deprecated.
您也不会仅仅因为 Windows 11 现在具有更好的窗口管理而删除花式区域。会议工具是PowerToys的必备功能。唯一支持Win + Alt + K的应用程序是Microsoft Teams。
是的，截止到目前。需要开发者自行适配Win11中的相关功能
