For us Windows users, I discovered that one software developer seems to have figured a way to minimize the issue of major Window Updates reordering the OS's internal list of sound devices.
?
I was building a laptop to work with VARA FM and Packet to act as a temporary Winlink Digipeater for a local exercise.? ?I experiment a lot with this laptop and don't always rename my sound devices from the default on this machine or label what cables have been plugged into which port or regularly uninstall unused assigned devices.? Unlike which I do with my Day to Day digital mode computer that has all the cables labeled and USB port label to match the cable.? As well as remove no longer used Serial Ports and keep the port numbers contiguous as I install new serial port devices.
?
Anyway, after several false starts a few quick changes I got it working working with VARA FM and using DireWolf for Packet.? Seeing their was a Windows update that had been downloaded I renamed the sound devices to unique names so I could know which where the Digirig Lites device versus the Signalink and DRA devices I regularly have attached to that machine.? Then it let do the update knowing I had time to fix things the next day which I had scheduled with others to do some testing.
?
Not to my surprise when I started up VARA FM, I saw it had the wrong sound devices and since I had renamed them, it was easily to apply the changes to VARA FM.? Later on that day I took the system out to my shop test it as a digipeater.? All worked fine, but then I realized even though I had not adjusted DireWolf, it worked fine.? Bringing it back in to my home I saw it was using the correct sound devices.? I was puzzled, but didn't give it much thought until today.??
?
I am on the DireWolf groups.io page as well as others.? This morning I read something to from the developer of DireWolf, WB2OSZ, that made me realize why it had no issues with the reorder.? ? Rather than pick from a list to select the sound device, DireWolf request you specify it is position in the list, or provide it by name in the config file.? His recommendation was that users of DireWolf use the full names or the Substring of the name for the audio device configuration parameter (ADEVICE).? So rather than ADEVICE 1,2 if you have renamed them you could use either ADEVICE "Digi UV5R Mic" "Digi UV5R Spkr" ?or if they differ only by "Mic" and "Spkr" you can use ADEVICE "Digi UV5R".? So despite Windows reordering the list when compacting the known devices list for the new release it still will pick the correct device.? ?Not trusting my typing, I had copied and pasted the names from the Sounds Dialog to use in the config file,so: ADEVICE "Digi UV5R Mic" "Digi UV5R Spkr" was used for the config parameter.
?
This leads me to believe all the other developers are tracking the order in the list rather than the name we selected from the drop down.? If possible, it would nice to see both VARA FM and VARA as well as other digital software vendors maintain a persistent value between executions of the program of the name selected for the audio devices so if a Windows update reorders the list, it picks it to match the name not the previous execution's position.? If the named device no longer exists, it seems a popup message could alert the user to fixing the issue.??
?
?
Brian - W7OWO
?
?
?
Brian - W7OWO