What Does Microphone Boost Do & How To Use It?

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Tim Rhodes

What does microphone boost do?

Do you sometimes find it difficult to hear what the other person over the call is saying?

There’s no need to tell you that the problem may not be any hardware or online meeting service provider but with your Windows microphone setting.

So, when you head towards any meeting on Skype, MSN, or Zoom, make sure that you’ve done microphone boost as it can prevent you from any inconvenience during the call.

Yet, it’s highly important to learn what microphone boost is and how it works in the different Windows versions.

Similarly, learning about different causes of missing Microphone Boost features, and the ways to fix them is also necessary.

What Does Microphone Boost Do And How To Use It

To help you know more about the question, “what does microphone boost do?”, and to enhance your microphone performance, we’ve got you our complete guide.

Microphone Boost: What Does the Feature Do?

The microphone boost makes sure that your microphone is working according to the need.

Before you look for a solution for your microphone sound output or input issue, there are some simple checks which can save most of your time.

The foremost important step is to make sure you’ve got a microphone that’s operational and active.

Now, you’ll plug your microphone into your PC or laptop, and adjust its volume settings: input & output.

Choosing the right setting, with a nice microphone, guarantees the best sound on both ends.

Hence, microphone boost simply means an enhanced setting of your microphones so that the receiver can hear you properly and get the right message.

To find the feature workable, you need to first set up your microphone and then test it according to the guide given below.

Set up your microphone

The microphone boost is available to use in Windows only when you finish setting up your microphone.

As soon as you connect your microphone with your PC or laptop, Windows detects and arranges for the setup.

However, the process doesn’t start automatically.

To set up your microphone, you need to do the following.

Connect your efficient microphone with your PC
Select “Start”
Go to “Settings”
In settings, you need to select “System”
Here, click on “Sound”
The clicking will lead to “Sound Settings”
In sound settings, go to “Input” and choose your Input device
Now select the “Recording device” and then, “Microphone.”

Test the installed microphone

To run a test for the workability of your microphone, follow the steps as given below:

Once you’ve set up your microphone, now select start
In “Start”, click on “Settings.”
In settings, go to “System”
Click on “Sound in System”
As the Sound settings open, click on “Input”
Here, select “Test your microphone”
You’ll see a blue bar
If the bar rises /falls when you speak into your microphone, it means that your microphone is working
If you don’t see the rise and fall of the bar, know that there’s a problem
You need to select Troubleshoot to figure out what’s wrong with your microphone

What’s a Microphone Boost in Windows 10?

Windows 10 is different, it’s more enhanced and efficient with the Microphone Boost option also available in it.

The option of Microsoft Boost is available in Windows 10 with equal or more utility, to help you improve your sound output for the receiver at the other end.

So to your question of “what does microphone boost do in Windows 10?”, you can use the microphone boost option to deal with the microphone sound input and the output problem.

Here the point to remember is that Microphone Sensitivity and Microphone boost are both the same name for the single feature.

So, don’t confuse yourself when you come across the term Microphone Sensitivity.

You can boost the microphone in Windows 10

In Windows 10 operating system, you can follow the steps to boost your microphone’s performance as we’ve listed below.

At the bottom right-hand side of your taskbar at the desktop, you see the “Speaker” icon
Here, right-click on the “speaker” icon
As the menu opens, you need to select/click “Recording devices”
The clicking will open the “Sound” dialog box on your main screen
Under the tab of “Recording devices” You can see the list of the devices you’ve installed or plugged
The active devices will appear with a green tick
Right-click your active device (microphone) and the menu will open
Here, right-click on the option of “Properties”
Clicking on Properties will open another window
In this new window, click on the “Level” tab
You’ll find two options: “Microphone”, and “Microphone Boost”
Move the slider available against “Microphone” in case you want to increase the volume
Move the slider available against the “Microphone Boost” option in case you want to increase or decrease the volume sensitivity

The sliders against the “Microphone” option give you an enhancement level up to 100 while the slider against “Microphone Boost” allows you to level up the sensitivity up to +30.0 dB.

Using the options, you can also minimize sound and sound sensitivity.

For this purpose, you just need to drag the sliders to the left side, and you’re all done.

Microphone Boost in Windows 8

My friend guided me on a certain microphone boost issue had while I was on a call with her, and she was having difficulties hearing me.

She was a Windows 8 user in the past and I got some great advice from her.

If you’re a Windows 8 user, there’s an equal chance that you might find your microphone performance in need of enhancement.

You can boost the microphone in Windows 8

It’s almost the same instructions as before:

Find the “Speaker” icon at the bottom right-hand side of your taskbar on the desktop
Right-click on the “Speaker” icon
Select/click “Recording devices” from the menu
It’ll open the “Sound” dialog box on your primary screen
Locate the list of your installed or plugged in devices under the tab “Recording devices”
You’ll see the active devices with a green tick
Right-click on your active device (microphone) to open the menu
Move your arrow on the “Properties” option and click it
You’ll get a new window opened on the screen
Here, click on the “Level” tab
The pan will show two options: “Microphone”, and “Microphone Boost”
Move the slider available against “Microphone” towards the right side to increase the volume
Or move the slider towards the left side to decrease the volume

Note that you’ll get an enhancement level up to 100 in sliders against the “Microphone” option.

While “Microphone Boost” will allow you to level up the sound sensitivity up to +30.0 dB.

Thus, you can either increase or decrease the sound and sound sensitivity.

Microphone boost in Windows 7

You can encounter the problem of your microphone not working in Windows 7 and you can solve this sound delivery problem by using Microsoft Boost.

However, unlike Microsoft Boost in Windows 8 and 10, the feature is quite simple in Windows 7.

So, here is how you can use the feature to get rid of low audibility issues.

Follow these simple steps:

On the taskbar, select “Recording devices” by right-clicking the speaker icon
Select the “Microphone”
Select Properties
You’ll find the option of boosting by +20.0 dB under the “Custom” tab
Select and enjoy a good sound experience on Windows 7

Can the Microphone Boost Feature Get Missing in Windows 10?

Yes, it can happen!

You might want to fix the microphone audibility problem by using the microphone boost option, and you‘ll find it missing.

This may be caused by several issues.

Let’s have a look at these reasons and their solutions:

The microphone headset button is on mute.

Hundreds of solutions fail because of something seemingly insignificant.

The same is true with your microphone headset button being on mute.

When this is the case, the Microphone Boost option becomes unavailable.

The solution is, however, quite simple.

All you have to do is to turn it on and enjoy your conversation.

A connection in the wrong port

A wrong configuration of the microphone port might make the Microphone Boost option unavailable.

The solution is to rectify your configuration manually and change the port.

Since users report that the priorly unavailable option of microphone boost, appeared active because of port configuration, hence we consider it an excellent solution for your microphone enhancement.

Several affected users have reported that the Microphone Boost option started appearing under the Levels tab after physically unplugging the mic from the connected port and plugging it into another.

As a user of Realtek driver, you’ll get a proactive notification that tells you to identify your plugged-in device.

If it’s so, check the box related to Mic In and click Ok.

You will start seeing the Microphone Boost option.

Outdated drivers for sound recording

The third cause in our list is outdated drivers for sound recording.

Many a time, you keep on ignoring the Windows Update notification, or you’ve already disabled that.

The result of not doing that is that the Microphone Boost feature keeps being unavailable.

As told by many users, the unavailability of the Microphone Boost features was resolved when they installed Windows updates.

So, you can try the option of installing all your pending updates for windows by updating your MS Window.

So, here is the method to update your Microsoft Window:

Open up a Run dialog box by pressing “Windows key + R.”
Type “ms-settings: Windows Update”
Press “Enter.”
You’ll see the “Windows Update” tab of the Update & Security Settings menu
Now click on “Check for updates”
Follow the on-screen prompts to install every pending Windows update
If the system asks to restart before the installation is complete, follow the instructions

Update the driver of microphone drivers.

If Windows updates installation cannot resolve the issue, the time is now to update your microphone drivers.

You can do so by using the Device Manager and follow the method given here:

Open up a Run dialog box by pressing the Windows key + R
The “Run” dialogue box will appear
To open up the Device Manager, type “devmgmt.msc” in the dialogue box and press “Enter”
Here, click and expand the drop-down menu related to Audio inputs and outputs
Now, choose “Properties” by right-clicking on your microphone device
As the Properties screen appears, click on the “Driver” tab
Now, click on “Update driver”
Click on “Search automatically for “Update Driver” on the new screen that appears on your desktop

Note that when you follow the process to install the drivers of your microphone, the system installs the drivers online.

Hence, to complete the installation of microphone drivers, make sure that you’ve got a good and stable internet connection.

To stay successful with your installation process whether it’s Windows Updates or microphone drivers, we’ll advise you to check your internet connection first.

Any midway disturbance can result in more harm to your system.

Similarly, when you’ve got a dedicated sound card, we’ll advise you to be on the safer side.

How?

In case you’ve got a dedicated sound card, downloading and installing the latest driver form from your manufacturer’s website is better.

When you install drivers from your sound card, sometimes the systems show you the option to install the latest drivers.

So, if during the process you get the option that allows the installation of the latest drivers, follow the installation of the updated version of microphone drivers.

Restarting your PC is the most important step at the end of any installation process whether it’s software or updates.

Therefore, we advise you to not forget to restart your PC after the installation is complete.

If you delay the restart and rush for work, the result can be your system up-gradation will not be functioning properly.

Hardware not supporting the microphone boost

What if you come across the message of no support for the hardware?

The problem behind that is the soundcard.

Here you have to get a dedicated PCI sound card.

Getting a dedicated PCI sound card may be expensive, yet it may be the only reason behind your microphone output failure.

A sound card can boost your microphone output levels.

Only your sound card drivers will determine whether you’ll see the Microphone Boost option under the Levels tab or not.

Windows 10 can, now, differentiate between sound drivers.

So, Windows 10 eliminates the specific options if the sound card drivers don’t qualify to meet the requirements.

Hence, you can fix the issue in no time by investing in a sound card.

Having a new sound card with the installation of drivers will upgrade your microphone performance.

Other Reasons for No Microphone Boost Option in Windows

Although we’ve looked at some reasons why the microphone boost option doesn’t appear in some versions of Windows; we’ll be looking at some reasons common to all Windows version

Apps have no access to your microphone

It’s possible that your apps have no access to the microphone.

To solve the problem, you must follow the steps as given here:

Select “Start”
Select “Settings”
Click on “Privacy”
Here, click on “Change” to allow all apps access to your microphone

Once you’ve allowed the apps to access your microphone, you can also choose the apps which can access your microphone:

Choose the apps you’ll like to allow access to your microphone
To enable your non-Microsoft apps to access your microphone, switch on under the option of “Allow desktop apps to access your microphone”

Extremely low microphone volume

Yes, another reason you cannot find Microphone Boost in your Windows can be just a low volume problem.

To solve the issue, we’ve got you the following solutions.

Ensure that you have connected the microphone or headset correctly to your computer.

Ensure your microphone is well-positioned.

Sometimes the simple reason can be that your microphone doesn’t have the correct option, which makes it unable to share the sound.

You might need to up-level the volume of your microphone.

You can do so by following these simple steps:

Select “Settings” by clicking “Start”
Select “System”, and then “Sound”
Now click on “Input”
See whether you’ve selected your microphone under “Choose your input device”
Now select Device Properties and set the volume sensitivity and Microphone by moving the sliders right or left, just as you read earlier
Finally, click “OK”
Run a microphone test by speaking into your microphone and see the bars moving to know that everything is alright

Microphone Boosting might not solve the sound problem

Lots of solutions have been given to make your excellent audio input device work.

Despite all of this, the Microphone Boost option might not work still.

Though it’s rare, you can solve the problem by utilizing the “Advanced” option.

For this purpose, follow the steps listed below:

Right-click on the “Speaker” icon
Select/click “Recording devices” by right-clicking the speaker icon at your taskbar
As it’ll open the “Sound” dialog box on your primary screen
At the list of your installed devices under the tab of “Recording Devices,” in the Sound dialogue box, right-click your active microphone
Click the Properties option
In the new window, click on the “advanced” tab
Now check the boxes for, “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device”
Also, check the “Give exclusive mode application priority”

So you can work on improving the quality of the sound volume by trying the Advanced Setting method.

Final Thoughts

When you’re talking into your microphone, your sole purpose is to deliver your message by being audible, and many times, you hear sound on the other end inaudible despite having a good microphone.

A certain way to become successful with your audio output is to check for the soft solutions that you can get in MS Windows and get rid of the annoyance of inaudible sounds.

If you’ve been wondering all along, “what does microphone boost do?”, I’m sure this article has enlightened you.

Getting a microphone boost is of great importance for your online discussions, meetings, and calls, whether personal or professional.

However, you need not consult any software professional to fix the audibility issue of your microphone.

By determining the right solution from our guide, you can fix the problem in no time.

Keep in mind that microphone boost is not a perfect option, for it can be a bit too noisy and deliver all the background noises on the other end, so, it’s necessary to enhance the volume for the delivery sake only, not for a 100% output.