Microphone level setting in Windows 7

In recent Google Hangouts and tests of patching a Hangout to an HF transceiver, the need for adjusting microphone gain was noted. Many of us were familiar with how to set microphone gain in Skype, since it provides an explicit setting option for this. (The Google Hangout app does not.) Some are familiar with how to set this in Windows XP via its audio mixer settings, but those settings seemed to be absent in Windows 7.

After a little digging around this morning I found where to set microphone gain in Windows 7.
This is also documented in a Microsoft Support article. Start by right-clicking the familiar speaker icon in your lower right desktop corner (task bar on bottom). You'll get the menu shown below.

Click on Recording devices and see the window shown below.

Click on the Recording tab, verify the microphone device you want to use is designated as default, click on it to select and then click Properties. Next you'll see the window below.

Click on the Levels tab and you'll see slider controls for Microphone and Boost, or possibly just Boost. Here you can adjust the level for your microphone. I've verified this on three different Windows 7 computers, and noted that the microphone level defaults to 100%. If your audio app, such as Google Hangouts, is getting too much audio you can reduce it here.

While digging around in these settings I also found an option that should let me try my headset microphone with the Flex-3000. The Listen tab on the Microphone Properties page has an option to "Listen to this device" and choose "Playback through" a device selected on a pull-down menu. There I can choose the virtual audio cable for my transmit audio. I'll try this on an upcoming QSO.

JK