How can I hide certain playback devices in the Windows 10 taskbar?

In Windows 10, you can quickly change audio playback devices by clicking once on the sound icon in the taskbar:

I love this feature, but some of the audio devices in the list are ones I never use (like speakers built in to monitors).

Is there anyway I can hide certain playback devices from the list?

Solution 1:

Disabled audio devices should not show in that list.

If you are never going to use a given audio device, then in the Control Panel open the Sound (or Manage Audio Devices) item.

For any entries you do not use, right-click the item in the list and select Disable.

Solution 2:

I don't know of a way to customize this list without making the devices generally non-functional.

Disabling or deleting such a device may omit devices that Windows will not recreate on the next boot, but this may be too radical for devices which are necessary for correct functioning such as the speakers.

A light-weight solution is to assign hotkeys to the audio devices that you use, to avoid such errors when selecting.

A free utility that can help is Audio Switcher :