By default, newly provisioned Windows Server VPS instances have audio output disabled. If you connect and try to play audio or run video-editing software, you will see a red cross on the speaker icon showing "No Audio Output Device is installed". Furthermore, even if audio is activated, it often lag seconds behind the screen graphics.
In this guide, we will enable the audio service, allow audio redirection in group policies, and adjust registry sound buffer settings to minimize audio transmission latency over RDP.
Step 1: Enabling the Windows Audio Service
Windows Server disables the sound services to save system memory. To activate it universally, run these commands in Command Prompt as Administrator:
# Configure Windows Audio service to start automatically sc config Audiosrv start= auto net start Audiosrv # Configure Windows Audio Endpoint Builder service sc config AudioEndpointBuilder start= auto net start AudioEndpointBuilder
Step 2: Enabling Audio Redirection in Registry
RDP sound streams must be enabled in terminal services configurations. We can force audio redirection and disable latency compression using these registry keys:
# Allow audio redirection (fDisableAudioRec = 0) reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp" /v "fDisableAudioRec" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f # Enable dynamic audio quality adjustments for low latency reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Winstations\RDP-Tcp" /v "AudioQualityMode" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Ensure that in your local Remote Desktop client connection settings, under **Local Resources** > **Remote Audio**, you have chosen **Play on this computer** before connecting.