Windows 10- microphone is playing back through speakers

A surprise one from your friendly neighbourhood IT Support this afternoon. A laptop running Windows 10 has started playing back all the sound picked up by the Microphone- my voice was being echoed back (with a slight delay) even when no applications were running.

The solution here is found in a setting in the Windows sound controls- the following steps will resolve the issue.

  1. Open “Control Panel” from the Start menu
  2. Click on “Sound”
  3. On the “Sound” dialogue, select the “Recording” tab
  4. Select your active microphone from the list
  5. Click on the “Properties” button
  6. On the “Microphone Properties” dialogue, select the “Listen” tab
  7. Un-tick the box labelled “Listen to this device”
  8. Click “OK” on the “Microphone Properties” and “Sound” dialogues.