Owners of laptops often wonder how to turn off the microphone on a laptop. The point here is not even that it is easier to do on personal computers, but rather that the user himself does not have this knowledge. In general, on a PC and on a laptop, operations are similar, with the exception of some nuances. In this article, we will answer the question of how to disconnect the microphone on a laptop. Windows 10 and Ubuntu are the operating systems in question.
Disable the microphone on Windows
In the Windows operating system, as in all others, there are several ways to disable the built-in microphone on a laptop. Now we will consider the most popular of them. Both built-in microphones and an external headset will be exposed.
Initially, of course, it is worth saying that on more laptops there is a special button on the keyboard to mute the microphone. The microphone icon will be drawn on this key, and it is often located in the upper area, where the keys starting with F. are located. Note that this function is often activated when pressed in combination with the Fn key.
Now let's move on to the system settings themselves. The microphone (both internal and external) can be turned off in the sound settings. To get started, let's move on there.
To do this, go to the "Control Panel". To get there, click the "Start" menu, then click on "Control Panel", which is located on the right sidebar. Find the category "Equipment and Sound", enter there. Now go to the “Sound” setting. A window will open in front of you, in it immediately click on the "Record" tab. There you can watch all currently connected microphones - both external and internal. To disable any, click on it with RMB and select the option of the same name in the menu.
Please note: if there are several microphones and you don’t know which one to turn off, then you can knock on it, in this case the green bar will be filled in the “Sound” settings next to this microphone. This way you will know which microphone the icon in the settings refers to.
Now you know how to disable the internal microphone on a laptop in the Windows operating system. But this is not the only way, so move on.
Disable through the Realtek utility
It’s worth saying right away that this method is suitable only for those users who have a microphone from Realtek installed. The fact is that this manufacturer along with the product provides a utility that helps to interact with its device. Often this utility is installed automatically with the driver, and later you can find it in the system tray.
Open the tray and click on the Realtek icon. You will see the "Realtek HD Manager". Most likely, two tabs will be visible - these are "Speakers" and "Microphone". Go to the second. Now you have all the microphone settings. Here, besides the fact that you can turn off microphone recording, you can also enable the option of noise reduction or echo, as well as much more. Now you know how to turn off the microphone on the laptop, if you have it from Realtek.
Turn off the microphone in Skype
Most often, people want to mute the microphone while they are using Skype. In this case, you don’t even have to bother with searching for system configurations; everything is made much simpler.
There are also two options here, how to disable the microphone on a laptop. First, let's take a look at the simplest and most famous. To implement it, you just need to turn your attention to the large round button with a microphone icon. Note that she appears only during a direct conversation. If you click on it, your interlocutor will stop hearing you. To return everything to its original state, press the button again.
It was an easy way, but there is a more complicated one. To do this, go to the Skype settings. To do this, on the top panel, click "Tools" and then go to "Settings ...". In the left panel, go to "Sound Settings" and in the column "Microphone" move the slider to the far left. Note that after this, your interlocutors will no longer hear you at all.
Disable the microphone in Ubuntu
We already talked about how to disable a microphone on a laptop in Windows, but bypassed the lesser-known Ubuntu OS. Although she also has a lot of fans.
To disable the microphone in it, you need to click on the volume indicator in the upper right corner. A small window will open in front of you, in which you can click on the microphone indicator, and it will immediately turn off. If you want to select the microphone that you want to turn off, then go to "Sound Settings". There, on the "Input" tab, all microphones will be displayed. Select the one you need and in the upper part of the window click on "Turn off sound." Everything, the microphone is muted.