Output Audio to Speakers and HDMI at the same time

March 29, 2016

My computer setup consists of 4 display outputs, three of these outputs are the monitor’s I use on a daily basis. The fourth output is my 48″ LG TV, this is connected to my computer via HDMI.

It is possible to play sound out of these individually by switching the default audio playback in the sound settings under control panel. However I want to be able to output the audio to both my computer speakers and my TV at the same time, the reason for this is I use my computer as a Media Centre.

Having audio outputting to both the TV and Speakers means I do not have to constantly switch settings in the control panel, which simply makes life easier! I only ever have one audio output on at any time.

Below are the steps to enable audio out both HDMI and your computer speakers simultaneously.

  1. Open sound in control panel and set your computer speakers as the default audio out.
  2. Next is to go to the recording’s tab and right and show disabled devices, then right click and enable the device that appears (Mine appears as Stereo Mix) and set it as default.
  3. Highlight the now default audio device and choose properties.
  4. Click on the Listen tab, check the box to enable ‘Listen to this device’ and then select the device from the dropdown you want, in this case I chose my TV.

That’s it, once you apply the above settings, your audio should now output to both your HDMI and Computer speakers. I have this set up on Windows 10.

Force application to use specific network card – ForceBindIP

November 23, 2015

Today I had a need to force one of the applications on my computer to use a different network card, by doing this I could set the application to use a second internet connection that I have.

On my computer I have two NIC’s, I have my primary NIC plugged into my network which is a fairly decent 4G internet connection, I get about 25mb down and 15mb up. My second network connection is plugged directly in my DSL router, this is a very slow internet connection.

Today I started working from from home, I will be working from home for a few weeks and in order to work I need to use a SIP (VOIP) Client program which connects into the office phone system. This program struggles to work with the 4G internet connection (Likely something on the mobile network restricting it!), so instead I wanted to force it to use my slower DSL internet connection.

This is not supported natively in Windows, and as I do not have a network firewall unit, I had to find another solution. There is a program called ForceBindIP, which supports all version of Windows, even Windows 10! (Lucky for me!). The program can be downloaded from here: Download site of ForceBindIP, I just downloaded the executable file. Ignore the fact that it says it will on run on NT -> 2003, I have tested this on Windows 10!

Once the file is run, below are the next steps (example is for Firefox);

  1. Launch the command prompt (Run as administrator)
  2. If the computer is 32bit then type the command: ForceBindIP.exe 192.168.10.4 “C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”
  3. If the computer is 64bit then type the command: %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\ForceBindIP.exe 192.168.10.4 “C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe”

That is all there is to it!

The IP in the example would be the IP address of the network card that you want the program to use. I have my NIC set to a static IP as it is easier, otherwise if the IP is dynamic you would have the get the NIC’s GUID from the registry and substitute it for where the IP is in the example above.

Each time you want the program to use the different network card, you will need to run the command, alternatively you could do what I did, I copied the command, created a new short-cut on the desktop and put the target in as the short-cut, this way it is a simple click of a button instead of having to run the command in the prompt each time.