Hello,
As the subject says.
The thing is, audio ducking has always worked for me until like 2 years ago when it just stopped. And three days ago I just formatted everything and reinstalled windows from scratch. I did all the windows updates and etc.
I know that in windows VM audio ducking with NVDA always work cause then it just uses the generic audio device. I could spend time to load the proper drivers and have access to the enhancement tab in mmsys.cpl (this is the sole reason for me to always to use a usb c to jack adapter :) ) but even then before with the oem driver it has worked, and I can't find the cause. It has worked on other laptops I have too with no driver change.
This doesn't work even with nvda factory settings no addons or anything.
Any help would be appreciated.
By TheBlindGuy07, 1 August, 2026
Forum
Windows
Comments
A question
In NVDA preferences/audio, what do you have for your main output device?
In device manager, are there any hardware snags where audio is concerned?
Are you running NVDA as a portable, or an installation? Don't laugh at this question, I always run mine as portable these days. Convenience, and all that jazz.
Are you running the Silencio application in your system tray? If so, try shutting it down and testing out audio ducking.
Will await your response before I come up with more suggestions. 😉
@Answers
Sorry, just saw it.
In NVDA preferences/audio, what do you have for your main output device?
Tried every combination from default audio device to speaker / headphone / whatever connected to usbc - jack adapter. Wasapi disabled / enabled did nothing different either.
In device manager, are there any hardware snags where audio is concerned? No, everything normal.
Are you running NVDA as a portable, or an installation? Don't laugh at this question, I always run mine as portable these days. Convenience, and all that jazz. Tried both, usually installed. Doesn't work.
Are you running the Silencio application in your system tray? If so, try shutting it down and testing out audio ducking. The bug was there before I even install it and still there with it on / off.
Will await your response before I come up with more suggestions. 😉
Yeah.
@TheBlindGuy07
So, I never noticed this before, but both my portable versions of NVDA (2025.3.3 and 2026.1.1) state Audio Ducking not supported whenever I press NVDA + Shift + D.
While I cannot tell you why this is, as Narrator does not have any issues with Ducking, there is an add-on to fix this.
It's called "Enhanced Duck", and you just install it and thats it, when you press NVDA + Shift + D, you can cycle between:
1. No Ducking.
2. Duck when outputting speech and sounds
3. Always duck
4. Duck inactive applications
5. Duck the active application
You can find the add-on directly in the Add-on Store from NVDA.
Edit: Here is a link to the add-on on GitHub, for convenience:
https://github.com/Glowing-Radiant/enhanced-duck
HTH. 😄
Wow.
Okay.
This is why I ❤ NVDA
Because there is almost always an add-on for something.
Hope that add-on I posted above works out for you. 😎