Switch between speaker and headphones in Windows 10

Switching between speakers and headphones is a task one may want to perform quite often. Despite the very basic nature of this task, Windows had made it rather tedious and confusing for users. That is until Windows 10 came around. Let us see how to do it the Windows 10 way.

Click on the volume icon in the notification area. It opens a small menu with two options as shown below.

Playback devices menu in collapsed form

The first option is the one we are looking for. This is a collapsed menu showing the currently active playback device, headphones in this example. Clicking on this item would expand the menu as shown below.

Playback devices menu expanded

Select the device you want to use.