Here's something highly specific that I used to be able to do, but as of the latest Windows update, I no longer can do. It's so specific to my setup that I don't think I'll get any help, but I figured I'd take a shot anyway.
On my desktop computer at home, I route my TV through my motherboard's "Line-In" port. This lets me use Windows sort of as a mixer, where I can hear my TV plus my computer through my headphones at the same time. It's great and convenient for multitasking.
Circumstances have kept me away from my desktop for a very long time. It's a long story, but we'll just say 2021 has been hard, and for months I've been working off an old Dell Latitude E6410 laptop running Windows 10. The laptop obviously lacks the line-in port, but I found I could still use an AUX cable to plug an Android tablet in to the laptop's microphone jack and as long as I had "Listen to this device" checked for the microphone, I could roughly approximate the setup I had with my TV at home, where I could have audio coming from the tablet along side native Windows audio.
Trying to get that setup hooked up tonight, it appears something has changed, possibly related to a Windows 10 update about a week ago: if Windows detects it has stopped receiving audio through the microphone jack for more than 1-2 seconds, it seems to "turn off" the jack. Android thinks the cable has been unplugged, and when the audio resumes, it will begin playing from the tablet's external speakers, even though the aux cable is still connected between the two devices.
I know this is a Windows issue, because I've tested the AUX cable with my Android Tablet (Samsung Galaxy tab) and my Android phone (Moto G7 Play). If Windows thinks the audio has stopped, it disables the microphone in such a way that causes Android to think the cable has been disconnected. I have tried three different aux cables, one of which was brand new and still shrink wrapped, and it happens on all of them.
The only way to fix this is to unplug the aux cable from the laptop and reconnect it while audio is playing. If Windows detects audio coming through the cable, it will begin playing as it should. But, as soon as there's more than a few seconds of silence, the whole problem starts all over again.
I can even hear it in my headphones -- once the silence goes on for long enough, there's an audible "click" when the microphone disables and I get really loud feedback noise until I unplug the cable.
Nothing in the Volume Mixer changes when this happens, I should note. It's not like the microphone visibly gets muted, where I can just click "Unmute." Something secretly toggles under the hood when extended silence is detected from the microphone port.
And, if it's not clear, this did not used to happen. For most of this year, this functioned like what I would consider "normal," where I could plug my tablet (or phone or whatever) in to an aux cable, plug that in to the laptop's microphone port, and use it as an impromptu line-in. Until tonight, and the only change between when it used to work and now seems to be this update:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/december-14-2021-kb5008212-os-builds-19041-1415-19042-1415-19043-1415-and-19044-1415-b46200db-74c3-450e-b200-51013957312a
Like I've said, I have tried multiple different aux cables, I have tried both my phone and my tablet, and I've gone through the cursory steps of unchecking "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device."
Not being able to do this anymore is a huge bummer.
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