Realtek HD Audio Manager is software that comes pre-installed with Realtek’s High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver on all Windows-based computers. It primarily focuses on controlling and managing the audio devices connected to your Windows PC.

Realtek HD Audio Manager helps Windows computers to detect, configure, and control audio devices like headphones, speakers, and microphones, etc.

Most of the time, users will not even notice the existence of such software. And then there are times when it just wouldn’t work at all. Realtek HD Audio Man­ag­er is notoriously famous for stop working out of the blue for no reason.

What’s worse? The Realtek HD Audio Man­ag­er goes missing completely. Although, this usually happens when you update Windows on your computer.

Have you been facing any of the issues below?

• Realtek HD Audio Man­ag­er Miss­ing.
• Realtek HD Audio Man­ag­er Not Opening.
• Realtek HD Audio Man­ag­er Not Working.
• Realtek HD Audio Man­ag­er Miss­ing on Windows 10

Then we have got the solution for you right here.

Fix Missing Realtek HD Audio Manager

The Realtek HD Audio Manager works completely fine on older versions of the Windows OS  such as Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows XP. Even in Windows 10 too, everything was just fine until a particular update. We are talking about the Windows 10 build 1903 update.

The Realtek HD Audio Driver comes with a host of built-in audio technologies such as Dolby Audio, DTS, Surround Sound, six-channel Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), and others technologies to boost the audio output of the connected audio devices.

If you are facing issues with Realtek HD Audio Manager or Driver, you are not alone. The internet is filled with tons of complaints from users all over the world. With a bit of research, we have come to know that the latest version of the Realtek HD Audio Driver, v2.82, does not work very well on Windows 10. One of the symptoms of this issue is the HD Audio Manager hides from the Windows taskbar. Another symptom is that it doesn’t open the HD Audio Manager when you click on the icon in the taskbar.

The way to solve this issue is by uninstalling the version v2.82 and replacing it with an error-free verison. And there are two options here — reinstall a lower version or get and install the latest version from Realtek’s website.

And here’s how to do it.

Uninstall Realtek HD Audio Driver v2.82

In this step, we will uninstall the Realtek HD Audio Driver v2.82 which comes pre-installed on Windows 10.

1. Tap Windows key + X to launch the Quick Access Menu.
2. From the menu, tap Device Manager.
   
3. Once you are in the Device Manager, expand the Sound, video, and game controllers section.
   
   
4. Right-click on the Realtek High-Definition Audio and select the ‘Uninstall device’ option.
   
5. Next, check the ‘Delete the driver for this software‘ option and tap the Ok button to proceed with the installation.

Reinstall Realtek HD Audio Driver v2.81

The next step is to install the Realtek HD Audio Driver v2.81 that is compatible with Windows 10 and has a fully functional Realtek HD Audio Manager app. Unfortunately, this particular version is no longer available on Realtek’s official website, but you can grab it from any of the 3rd party software distributors. Below’s the link I used:

• Download Realtek HD Audio Driver

Once you have the file from the above link ready follow the steps below:

1. Right-click on the downloaded file and select Run as administrator.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions in the installation wizard and complete the installation.
3. Restart your PC after installing the Realtek HD Audio Driver.
4. Next, let us create a shortcut for the Realtek HD Audio Manager so that you can access it easily.
5. Click Windows Key + R and feed-in the below path and press the ‘Enter‘ key: C: > Program > FilesRealtekAudioHDA
   
6. Right-click on RAVCpl64, tap ‘Send to’, and select Desktop (this is to create shortcut).
   
   

Note: ‘RAVCpl64’ is the Realtek HD Audio Manager app.

Done. You now have constant access to the Realtek HD Audio Manager right from your desktop. You can also pin the app shortcut to taskbar:

• Right-click on the desktop shortcut.
• Tap on ‘Pin to taskbar’

After that, the Realtek HD Audio Manager will be pinned to your taskbar form where you can access it anytime.

This should bring back the Realtek HD Audio Manager on your Windows 10 PC.

Alternatively, if you want to re-install the latest Realtek HD Audio drivers (v2.82), you can download it from Realtek’s official website directly.

• Download Realtek HD Audio Drivers

Manage Windows 10 Audio

There are tons of software out there for the Windows ecosystem to manage and control the audio. But we do not recommend any of them. The default Realtek HD Audio Manager does a pretty wonderful job already.

Now that you have fixed the Realtek HD Audio Manager issues on your Windows 10 PC, you can efficiently manage your PC’s audio devices.