MicrophoneActiveSensor Always 'True' / Opt-in to registry keys

[amaisano]

After inspecting the registry and all my audio programs, I found that there are two things that are triggering the True condition for my microphone(s):

1. Creative Audio Service
2. Voicemeeter Banana

The first just seems to always keep the mic open, I don't know why. It's easy enough to stop that service without affecting anything, so that's fine.

~~The second however, does not appear in any registry that I could find. I see the entry for it in the registry, but the timestamps are both set in the past (not currently in use). I checked both CURRENT_USER and LOCAL_MACHINE microphone values.~~

Update: Turns out the registry needed to be refreshed...

If you're not familiar with Voicemeeter Banana, it's a audio routing program that can map various audio inputs to various audio outputs. As soon as I remove all my input devices from the program (aka "unhook" them), the Microphone status goes to False.

~~My first question is: where is the workstation service finding True? I hunted the registry but found no in-use items. Second question is,~~ can we choose to exclude/include certain keys from being checked? A lot of streamers and other audio professionals usually have apps like this that "keep the mic channels open" so to speak. It'd be great to say "ignore Creative Audio Service and VB Banana keys."

Related to https://github.com/sleevezipper/hass-workstation-service/issues/18 maybe?

Can we have an "opt-IN" method of subscribing to keys to check? Like a whitelist maybe?

Something around here?

https://github.com/sleevezipper/hass-workstation-service/blob/7be25dbcba1a517b0f1ead1fcc1929764e398004/hass-workstation-service/Domain/Sensors/MicrophoneActiveSensor.cs#L51

[sleevezipper]

Thank your for creating an issue and doing all that research!

I really like your idea! It will take a couple of hours of work though.

I'll mark this as an enhancement because the sensor is actually doing what it should in this case.

[almostserious]

Hi there, in this case, do you have the microphone icon in your taskbar? The Microphone sensor was working for me just fine until the last Windows 10 Update. Now, I always have it as True even if the Microphone Icon is not shown in the Taskbar.

[andrebbruno]

Hi there, in this case, do you have the microphone icon in your taskbar? The Microphone sensor was working for me just fine until the last Windows 10 Update. Now, I always have it as True even if the Microphone Icon is not shown in the Taskbar.

I can state the same after the last Windows 10 update - my mic now is considered as always "on" - that broke my 2 automations for meetings that I´m on :(

[sleevezipper]

@almostserious @andrebbruno it's working fine on my machine after upgrading so it doesn't happen consistently.

A registry key may be incorrectly set. Try removing the keys under Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CapabilityAccessManager\ConsentStore\microphone and Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CapabilityAccessManager\ConsentStore\microphone one by one.

[amaisano]

@almostserious -- My Windows privacy mic icon int he system tray was always on while I ran certain programs in the background, which is why I opened this feature request (so that we can "blacklist" certain programs/registry keys). I didn't see any inconsistencies between HASS's sensor and Window's mic sensor -- they always seem to agree with one another.