Building Easy Audio Toggle

Introduction

EasyAudioToggle is a simple Windows app that lets you switch between your audio devices—like speakers or headphones—with a quick double click on its tray icon. Right-click it to tweak settings or close it. A friendly first-run message helps you get started and suggests keeping the icon handy in your system tray. Download it today, and if it makes your life easier, maybe buy me a coffee!

Birth

Having the pain of switching by going deep into my Windows settings every time I wanted to swap audio output between my headphones and my desktop speakers after gaming session, Discord chat, or music session, EasyAudioToggle started as a simple idea: a lightweight Windows tray app to switch between audio output devices with a double-click. As a developer, I wanted something useful, distributable, and dead simple to use. What followed was a rollercoaster of coding, debugging, and learning—here’s the story.

The Starting Point

The project kicked off with .NET 8.0 and Windows Forms, chosen for their familiarity and robust support for system tray apps. I used the AudioSwitcher.AudioApi.CoreAudio library to manage audio devices, leveraging its simple API to list active devices and switch defaults. The initial setup was straightforward:

• A hidden MainForm managing the tray icon (NotifyIcon).
• A SettingsForm for users to pick two audio devices.
• Configuration stored in appsettings.json for persistence. (appsettings.default.json for installation)

Key Development Milestones

Manual UI Initialization

Using VS Code (no Visual Studio), I skipped the designer and built the UI manually in C#. The SettingsForm got ComboBoxes for device selection, a Save button, and a "Buy me a Coffee" link. Tedious, but with a basic GUI, not an issue.

Instruction for Use

I wanted a tray tooltip and a first-run dialogue. For the tooltip, "Double-click to switch audio. Right click for settings." via Text field in NotifyIcon (Tray icon) did the job. For the first-run dialogue, the NotifyIcon.Text 63-character limit forced a different route. Added a first-run MessageBox with detailed instructions, triggered by a FirstRun flag in appsettings.json.

Installer Hell (Cough, cough... I mean Challenges)

Shipping meant an MSI with WiX Toolset 5.0.2—a beast to tame. Discerning between widespread WiX v3 online tutorials and limited v5 posts was brutal.

• Switched <Product> to <Package>, dropped invalid attributes like Platform.
• Used ProgramFiles64Folder for a 64-bit installation.
• Added a Start menu shortcut with an icon from the .exe.
• The custom ExitDialog became a war zone—more below.

Build Size

The initial self-contained build (--self-contained true) ballooned the MSI to over 220MB—absurd for a simple app. Ditched that for a framework-dependent build, assuming users have .NET 8 or grab it separately. New command: dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 /p:PublishSingleFile=true /p:DebugType=None. MSI shrank to 1.4 MB! Anyone got a floppy disk?

Challenges Faced

Nullable Warnings

.NET 8.0’s nullable types threw CS8600 and CS8602 warnings. Fixed with ?? and ! operators, balancing safety and sanity.

WiX v5 Errors

Just a never ending of swap this for that.

• WIX0005: <UI> placement woes moved it to a <Fragment>.
• WIX0400: <Text Value="..."> became <Text>content</Text>—a v5 syntax trap.
• WIX0144: WixToolset.UI.wixext refused to load until I wrestled NuGet paths.

WiX Custom ExitDialog Hell

WixUI_Minimal clashed with my ExitDialog. Even with <InstallUISequence><Show Dialog="ExitDialog" After="ExecuteAction" /></InstallUISequence>, it hid. <Property Id="WIXUI_EXITDIALOGOPTIONALCHECKBOX" Value="0" /> and Height="150" fixed it after hours of msiexec /l*v logs. Then I ditched it—WiX GUI wasn’t worth it. MessageBox instead. My god. I should have gone that route from the start.

Icon Woes

Embedding icon.ico into the .exe and Start menu shortcut took .csproj (<ApplicationIcon>) and WiX (<Icon>) tweaks. Consistency was a small victory.

Library Compatibility

<NoWarn>NU1701</NoWarn> flagged AudioSwitcher.AudioApi.CoreAudio as old (.NET Standard 2.0). It works, but I had a little chat with Grok debating a switch to .NET 6 or NAudio. My bad for not researching before coding. Decided to ship as-is—why fix what isn't broke?

Takeaways

• VS Code Power: No Visual Studio needed—VS Code and dotnet CLI crushed it.
• WiX Learning Curve: WiX v5 is free but picky. Stick to v5 docs, don't venture out for help; nearly all blogs are v3, and brace for UI fights. Ditched the GUI for the MessageBox—simpler win.
• User Guidance: Tray tooltip and first-run MessageBox made it intuitive.
• Size Sanity: Framework-dependent cuts 98% of the size. Users need .NET 8, but that’s something they can mitigate easily.

Final Product

EasyAudioToggle is a 64-bit MSI-installed app in C:\Program Files\EasyAudioToggle. It minimizes to the tray, switches audio with a double-click. Right-click brings up the settings which save in %LocalAppData%. Custom icon.ico shines in the tray and Start menu. The first-run MessageBox guides users—no WiX GUI needed.

What’s Next?

Maybe NAudio for .NET 8 love or a tray settings tweak. For now, it’s solid—grab it from the link at the top and buy me a coffee if it vibes!