How to stop windows 8 from muting your running apps?

Solution 1:

It seems Steam, or any app using your Mic can cause this issue, try what's written below:

The reason why the music volume goes down is because Steam by default has activated the option "Automatically transmit my voice whenever I speak". So the solution is to:

1) Go to Steam > Settings > Voice tab and check the "Use a push-to-talk key to transmit voice".

2) Restart Steam and Audio app and you're done!

Taken from here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/W8ITProPreRel/thread/f862114e-8c30-4c66-830e-0018de1e8103

Solution 2:

They changed how media playback behaves in Windows 8. It mainly comes down to foreground vs background, and in the background its "stream category" helps determine what precedence it gets in terms of creating sound.

1. If your app is in the foreground, it doesn’t matter what category its audio stream is. It will always play sound, unless the system is muted or the volume is down.
2. Only one background capable audio app can play at a time, except when two are in the foreground.
3. Communications apps will always attenuate other system sounds when a call comes in on a communications stream type. If background music was playing, to hear the music again while in a call, the user can bring the music app to the foreground (snap the app or just bring it forward full screen) and then rune 1 applies.
4. Sounds from an app in the foreground will mix with background-capable audio if the foreground streams are not incompatible with the background stream. For example, a ForegroundOnlyMedia stream will mute a BackgroundCapableMedia stream playing in the background, but GameEffects will mix with the BackgroundCapableMedia so users can play games and listen to music.

I suspect they probably do not have the correct stream category set on it, so other apps are given precedence over it.

Source

Solution 3:

When on the desktop:

1. Right-click the "Speaker" in your lower right System Tray
2. Select "Playback Devices"
3. Select the "Communications" tab
4. Change the value to "Do nothing"

This will help. Otherwise, go back to the "Playback" tab and also check for which device is the "Default communication device". Set it to the one you prefer.