Realtek HD Audio Manager comes with Realtek’s High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver on almost every Windows computer. At times, it doesn’t open/function properly for some absurd and unknown reason. Worse, the Audio Manager goes missing, especially after a Windows update or any malware causing the issues. With the Realtek HD Audio Manager, the audio devices like headphones, speakers, and microphones are easily detected, configured, and controlled by your PC. The Realtek HD Audio Manager gets installed alongside the driver and rests in your PC’s system tray, taskbar, or general notification panel. When you can’t find the Audio Manager, or it goes missing, there are two ways to fix the problem.
Recover Missing Realtek HD Audio Manager
On previous versions of the Windows OS (Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1), the Realtek HD Audio Manager works just fine. The sound issues with Windows 10 build 1903 have become more rampant than ever. The Realtek HD Audio Driver boasts of support for Dolby audio, Dolby’s Digital Theater Systems (DTS), Surround Sound, six-channel Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), and others to boost your PC’s audio performance up a notch. In the search for a solution, I discovered that many quite a number of Windows 10 users are also going through the same dilemma. Digging deeper, it turns out that the latest version (v2.82) of the Realtek HD Audio Driver is buggy on the Windows 10 platform. That causes HD Audio Manager to hide from the taskbar. On some PC, it doesn’t even launch/open the HD Audio Manager at all. The trick to solving the missing Realtek HD Audio Manager is to uninstall the latest version (v 2.82). After that, you have two choices — reinstall a lower version or the latest version by fetching it from Realtek’s website. Here are the steps involved.
Uninstall Buggy Realtek HD Audio Driver
The first step is to uninstall the audio driver with buggy audio manager. Step 1: Tap Windows key + X shortcut to launch the Quick Access Menu at the bottom-left corner of the display. Step 2: Tap Device Manager on the Quick Access Menu. Step 3: On the Device Manager menu, expand the Sound, video, and game controllers section. Step 4: Right-click on the Realtek High Definition Audio and select Uninstall. Step 5: Check the ‘Delete the driver for this software’ option and tap the Ok button to proceed with the installation.
Reinstall Realtek HD Audio Driver
The next step is to install the bug-free version (v2.81) of the Realtek HD Audio Driver that comes with a functional Audio Manager. The version is no longer available on Realtek’s official website, but I was able to download the setup from Filehippo, a trusted website for software downloads. Download Realtek HD Audio Driver (v2.81) from Filehippo Download the setup from the link and follow the steps below. Step 1: Right-click on the downloaded setup and select Run as administrator. Step 2: Follow the installation prompts and restart your computer after installing the Realtek HD Audio Driver. The next thing to do now is to put the Realtek HD Audio Manager in place sight on your PC so it doesn’t ever go missing again. Step 3: Launch your File Explorer and navigate to this location — C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA. Alternatively, you can press the Windows + R keys to launch the RUN window and paste this location — C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA. Then, tap the Enter button on your keyboard. This will immediately open the folder where the Realtek HD Audio Manager app is located in your File Explorer. Step 4: Right-click on RAVCpl64, tap Send to, and select Desktop (create shortcut). Note: That creates a shortcut for the Realtek HD Audio Manager on your desktop. Step 5: On your desktop, right-click on the RAVCpl64 shortcut and tap the Pin to taskbar option. After that, the Realtek HD Audio Manager will be pinned to your taskbar. Also, it will appear on your system tray and notification area. And that’s it. The Realtek HD Audio Manager is now back to your PC. You can launch the app from the taskbar, system tray with a single mouse click. In case you want to try reinstalling the latest Realtek HD Audio drivers (v2.82) then you can grab a copy from the Realtek’s website directly. Download Realtek HD Audio Drivers We highly recommend you to check your computer’s motherboard maker’s site for the latest audio drivers for your motherboard’s model. The same thing applies to laptop models as well.
Effectively Manage Your PC’s Audio
Now that you have restored the Realtek HD Audio Manager on your PC, you can effectively manage your PC’s sound output and audio devices. You can also use the app to configure your computer’s microphone and use special instruments like Noise Suppression, Speaker Fill, Acoustic Echo Cancellation, and more. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
