Hyper-V Audio Support

By Chris, 21 March, 2024

Forum
Windows

Hi all,

As some of you may know, Microsoft Hyper-V doesn't emulate a virtual audio device, meaning a blind person is locked out of using it. I'd really like Microsoft to add audio support, as I think it could be very beneficial for blind server admins and others who want to use Hyper-V. I've created feedback concerning this in Microsoft's Feedback Hub, and would love if we could come together as a community to put enough pressure on Microsoft to make this a reality. I never thought they'd make the Windows Recovery Environment talk, but here we are, so it just goes to show you never know what the future holds. Here's the link to my feedback, and I'd encourage everyone to vote and comment on it.
https://aka.ms/AApezvg

I initially thought about putting this into the accessibility advocacy section, but thought Windows was more fitting. If users and/or the staff disagree, please move this.

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Comments

By Tara on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - 11:24

Would VB audio cable help you? You can route audio through that, as opposed to using your internal sound card for stuff. But maybe you wouldn't be able to use it with a server or something. The link is here.
https://vb-audio.com/Cable/

The website isn't very accessible, but just hit G to move through the images on the page to get to the 'VB-Audio Virtual Audio Cable' section.

By Chris on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - 11:24

While this might work, it's Windows specific, and requires you get someone to help you install and configure it. All I want is for Hyper-V to emulate a soundcard so we get audio immediately. This would make it possible to install Windows using Narrator, or Linux using Orca/Speakup.

By Brad on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

You can already do that on laptops running windows, or is that not what you're talking about?

Also the accessibility when it comes to the feedback hub isn't the best, links, you can't seam to read comments unless you mes around with NVDA and the numbpad thing, I forget what it's called at the moment.

For some reason I can't open the link, it says I don't have a file or program asociated with the app.

By Tara on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

You have to be a member of the Windows insider program it seems. I think it's an early access thing? I tried to open the link when signed into my Microsoft account, it said my account isn't allowed to access it or something.Unless I'm very much mistaken, Chris is referring to some sort of system where you connect to a remote server, so someone else's computer or network, and you can get speech while on that server. Sorry Chris if I've misunderstood.

By Brad on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

I see.

I'm not a part of the insider program, i've not needed it so far.

By Justin Harris on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

Tara, yes, this is for remote server management. And yes, it is a very frustrating problem. I tried to set up a vps once for my online radio station, and ran in to this. Ended up cancelling the service after a few days because I just couldn’t get it up, running and stable.

By Tara on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

Hi Justin,
Sorry to hear you couldn't get your server up and running. Maybe Chris' feedback to Microsoft will help with this issue.

By Chris on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

Sorry for any confusion, I thought more people would know what this is. Hyper-V is basically Microsoft's hypervisor software to run virtual machines, just like VMware Player/Workstation for Windows, or Fusion for Mac. It was originally meant for server use on Windows Server 2008, hence why sound wasn't prioritized. However, it made its way into Windows 8 Pro and later, so it really should have sound support. Besides, blind people can and want to use servers. All I want is sound support on the host when running virtual machines. You can get audio working if you use Remote Desktop to connect over the network, but this requires you get someone with sight to configure it for you.

I'm not sure if you have to join the Windows Insider program to post feedback, but this seems very likely. Fortunately, it's free to join your Microsoft account to the program, and you don't necessarily have to install the Insider builds. I'm not aware of any other channels to bring this to Microsoft's attention, hence why I use Feedback Hub. I thought we could come together as a community and make Microsoft prioritize this issue, but maybe I'm the only one that cares?

Does Hyper-V work on a VPS? I didn't think so, since a VPS is already virtualized, but I've never really tried a Windows Server VPS since it's so much more expensive than Linux.

By Brad on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

That you're the only one using it or wanting to use it at the moment.

By Tara on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

Hi Chris,
I looked into the Windows Insider program, and it looks a bit long-winded to be honest. I know I wouldn't have to download stuff, but I don't want to get emails about new stuff I probably wouldn't be interested in trying. And according to the terms and conditions etc. that's what would happen. Have you tried asking on audiogames.net on the off topic room forum? There are developers and stuff there who probably know about virtual machines etc. That's probably one of the best places to ask if you want to find people with similar knowledge and requirements to yours. There are a couple of not very active subreddits for blind users interested in cyber security and programming. I don't know what they're called, but I read about them on the /r/Blind sub. I wouldn't recommend that particular sub for asking tech questions, you usually get the minimal amount of answers there. What about Facebook groups or telegram channels? Maybe you've tried all these avenues already. And have you ever tried Remote Incident Manager (RIM) from Pneuma Solutions?
https://pneumasolutions.com/products/rim/
You have to subscribe to it, but I'm wondering if you could do something with that. I heard about it on the Double Tap podcast. Pneuma solutions seems to have a few things for remote stuff. Sorry I can't be of more help.

By Holy Diver on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

@Brad, No this would be an absolute game changer for any of us in the IT field or just wanting to learn linux without the need to dabble with VMware, virtualbox or some other online virtual machine. I ran into this problem just trying to set up the windows subsystem for Linux, apparently there are workarounds but they require sighted assistance which obviously isn't always available. Not only that but they require sighted assistance from a fairly advanced computer user, even harder to come by. This is a massive problem, I'll be adding my vote to the mix.

By Chris on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 11:24

Holy Diver, thanks for the support! Windows Sandbox has audio, so there's no excuse for Hyper-V not to have it. Sadly, most people don't seem to care about this.

By Sebby on Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 11:24

Been a while so I can't remember if Hyper-V has USB pass-through. If it did, then of course you have the option of using USB audio hardware until you can get enhanced session mode up and running.

But I agree that it's an ugly oversight, especially now that ESXI is no longer freely available. Realistically this is the only option available now, unless you're happy to put up with the limitations of Workstation like requiring a UI, not being able to easily start up VMs with the system and no support for memory ballooning. So it would be great for Windows users to get this.

By Chris on Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 11:24

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure USB devices are only supported with Enhanced Session Mode. Why they can't just virtualize the necessary hardware is beyond me!

By Sebby on Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 11:24

It's for servers, so of course you'd never need audio except through a remote client Windows RDP session. Right? Right?

But it's very unfortunate. Really the only other option I can think of is scripting the guest install with an answer file to enable RDP. Either that or use Workstation to prep the VM before transferring it to Hyper-V. But neither option is realistically available for common situations like using existing VMs or cloud provider images. This is what happens when blind people are out of the loop. Such a shame ESXI is basically over.

By Chris on Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 11:24

Blind people can and do want to use servers. Besides, this has moved to consumer versions of Windows, so server usage isn't the only thing it's good for anymore. Oh well, we'll find out what the future brings. Change does happen, even if that change doesn't happen as quickly as we might want it to. I wish more people cared about this. I'd think equal access to information would be a priority for everyone.