Lost all audio after May, 2021 Windows 10 update!!!!

Thirding this. The windows updates effectively killed the my audio on one of my PC's. The only usable solution was to restore a backup from before the updated were pushed to that PC.

Microsoft needs to withdraw that update and go back to the drawing board.

We have several endpoints experiencing the same issue. Started after deploying May 2021 patches . After trying several proposed solutions and nothing making an impact, adding the Local Service account to the Local Administrators group. Oddly enough, if I change the "Log On" account for the Windows Audio service to the Local System, Account, then we get our Sound Adapters back.

Endpoints Impacted

• All are Dell Laptops, majority being 5400s.

• Link to others having the same issue: https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Latitude-5400-No-Sound-after-May-2021-windows-update/td-p/7878650

What the Endpoint Displays

Windows Audio Service

We have this issue as well, changing to Local System Account - got rid of the red x error on all reboots, however no audio could be heard. I had to switch back.

It appears that monthly patch that failed was causing the following registry key to break.

consolesecurity located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations

The ConsoleSecurity shows as Zero-Length Binary Value

Import the registry key from a working machine (which is the same for all machines I believe) and this has fixed the issue for me.

Interesting ... will try that.

Just linking two other threads with the same issue:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/problem-with-windows-10-ver-21h1-all-audio/b06d02e3-461e-4867-a958-09ea601ebd08

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-10-20h2-21h1-may-june-cumulative-updates/742ad074-b018-4c10-ad62-e203a51189eb

It's about time MS does something about this :(

I can't believe it but this actually fixed the problem.

How did you find out about that specific key?

Here is a PowerShell script to first backup everything under WinStations and then copy the value from DefaultSecurity to ConsoleSecurity.

I did not include a check if the current value of ConsoleSecurity is empty / shows as Zero-Length Binary Value so it is probably a good idea to verify this first.

Copy everything, save it as fixAudio.ps1 and call it as admin with PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\fixAudio.ps1

(-ExecutionPolicy Bypass is just needed so you can execute local scripts no matter what policy currently is configured on your system, more info at MS docs)

Use at your own risk ;)

Audio should work after reboot.

REG EXPORT "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations" WinStations_backup.reg

$WinStationsPath="HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations"

$value = Get-ItemProperty -Path $WinStationsPath -Name DefaultSecurity

Set-ItemProperty -Path $WinStationsPath -Name ConsoleSecurity -Value $value.DefaultSecurity

Alternatively, you can of course use regedit to do this manually!

I checked 2 laptops (work and personal) and ConsoleSecurity has a different value to DefaultSecurity (same on both though) so copied that over in an exported reg file (removed all but ConsoleSecurity to import) and guess what... volume icon instead of a red cross and I actually have sound! Thank you for working this out! So great to have my sound back.

Many thanks Todd! Copied across the value from a working Windows install (pre-update) and now the audio works from start up again.

Hi FinderAUT,

One thing that leaves me puzzled though, is that why is it that the users who re-installed Windows were sill having the problem (unless if I understood wrongly)? That's what I thought I read. In my understanding the registry would be replaced as well...

Hi all,

It works ... it also unlocked the Fn+Esc keys on my HP notebook that didn't work (to open the HP System Information dialog box).

Thanks all !