Installing a fake microphone on Windows Server

My application, that is running on Windows Server (which is an instance on Amazon EC2) requires Skype to be able to make phone calls. The server, of course, does not have a microphone installed and I don't need it to have one, because my application changes the input source to a wav file when the call is established. However, Skype has a strict rule that a microphone must be installed for a call to be made.

Thus I want to install a fake microphone that will trick Skype's configuration.

So far, I was able to start and run the Windows Sound service, which enabled all of the sound settings.

Any ideas are very welcome!

screenshot345

Posted 2010-04-14T18:40:11.773

Reputation: 191

Answers

Try this one. It has it's limitations like : "Local session only (not available from Remote Desktop)" "The trial is 100% functional, but you get an annoying message every few seconds saying it's a trial."

http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html

Montag451

Posted 2010-04-14T18:40:11.773

Reputation: 672

If it can't be used from Remote Desktop, how is it useful for an EC2 instance? – Miles Erickson – 2010-04-22T19:23:31.600

@Miles Erickson - don't mean to be a PITA, but if this is a restriction, it is the same software you recommended in your answer! – William Hilsum – 2010-09-19T03:00:47.097

@Wil Crap, you're right. That's pretty funny. I'll have to revise my answer. – Miles Erickson – 2010-09-20T15:04:24.617

(It has been confirmed to work on remote servers.) – Miles Erickson – 2018-10-04T13:43:42.500

Virtual Audio Cable should do what you need, including redirecting the playback of your wav file from a virtual speaker to your virtual microphone if desired: http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html

Microsoft publishes the source code for a Virtual Audio Driver as part of the Windows Driver Development Kit. If you have access to Visual Studio, or if you know a programmer who does, compiling this virtual driver and installing it on your EC2 instance may accomplish what you need.

Miles Erickson

Posted 2010-04-14T18:40:11.773

Reputation: 1 079

Dead link for the VAD. – Jon Barker – 2018-06-13T18:12:37.963

Shoot. I wonder if they migrated it to GitHub? https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-driver-samples/tree/master/audio/sysvad

– Miles Erickson – 2018-06-14T22:32:37.767

From user vichar: The virtual audio cable software worked for me on AWS EC2 instance. From myself, it isn't clear why that solution is crossed out.

– fixer1234 – 2018-10-03T08:40:02.850

Just try to install a random driver for any microphone. There should be a standard microsoft driver implemented in Windows. I don't know if Skype checks for a real physical microphone but I guess it's just searching for an installed driver.

Diskilla

Posted 2010-04-14T18:40:11.773

Reputation: 1 516

-1

Can you install a microphone and then either not use it or disable it? Since you're changing the input to a .wav, it won't really matter.

I know it seems wasteful, put it might be the easiest solution.

Onion-Knight

Posted 2010-04-14T18:40:11.773

Reputation: 213

4His server is running in the "cloud" using Amazon EC2. Thus he has no access to install a physical microphone. – firedfly – 2010-04-15T03:42:32.097

good and IMPORTANT point. – Diskilla – 2010-04-19T11:33:05.953