Small Windows tray app to toggle listening to an audio input device. Pipes a chosen capture device to the default audio render device. (My personal use case is to easily listen to my USB connected turntable.)
- Sits in the system tray; double-click to toggle playback on/off
- Lists all available audio capture devices via the tray context menu
- Starts muted by default — enable listening only when you want it
- Sets a configurable volume level (0–100, default 70) on the input endpoint at startup and on every toggle
- Persists the chosen device and volume to the registry (
HKCU\Software\Listen). If the chosen device is off or unplugged, Listen shows it as unavailable and waits for it to come back rather than switching to another input - Optional Run on login toggle (registers under
HKCU\...\Run\Listen) - Promotes its own tray icon to "always show" so it is never hidden
- No installer, no runtime dependencies — single static executable
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Double-click tray icon | Toggle listening on / off |
| Right-click tray icon | Open context menu |
| Context menu → (device name) | Switch input device |
| Context menu → Run on login | Enable / disable autostart |
| Context menu → Exit | Quit the app |
Requires: w64devkit (or any MinGW-w64 toolchain with g++ and windres on PATH).
build.batThis compiles main.cpp and the embedded resources into a single statically linked Listen.exe. No external libraries are needed beyond stock Windows DLLs (ole32, user32, shell32, advapi32, avrt).
- Windows 10 or later
- An audio capture device (microphone, line-in, etc.)