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A small Windows utility that keeps background music out of the way when another app needs your attention.
- See It In Action (Demo)
- Take A Look Around (Screenshots/GIFs)
- Why DeskDuck?
- How It Works
- What You Can Control
- A Typical Setup
- Understanding The Settings
- Sessions Window
- Log Window
- System Tray
- Volume Safety
- Requirements
- Download And Run
- Build From Source
- Troubleshooting
- A Note About The Beta
- For Developers
- License
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/becdb9d4-a428-4406-b764-2e03b87d9025
NOTE: The demo shown here is still in v1.0.0-beta
Updated to v1.0.1-beta
See section: How It Works
See section: Sessions Window
See section: Log Window
See section: System Tray
Sometimes you want music playing in the background while you work. Then another application starts playing something you actually need to hear, and suddenly your music is competing with it.
DeskDuck takes care of that little annoyance automatically.
Choose the app you use for background music, choose which other apps should get priority, and DeskDuck lowers the music while those apps are actively playing audio. When they're finished, your music comes back smoothly.
You can use it with whatever desktop apps you already have. Music players, browsers, creative software, game engines, media players, meeting apps, and other programs can all fit into the same setup as long as Windows gives them an audio session.
Windows keeps track of audio activity separately for desktop applications. DeskDuck uses that information to decide when your background music should step aside.
You choose:
- The app to duck: the one whose volume DeskDuck controls.
- The apps that can trigger a duck: the applications whose audio should take priority.
- How DeskDuck should detect playback: either by activity or by audio level.
Session activity is the mode to use when you want any amount of playback to count.
When a selected app is actively producing audio, DeskDuck lowers your music and keeps it there for as long as that audio session remains active. The actual loudness does not matter, so very quiet ambience and subtle background sounds still count.
This is useful when you're working with audio that you need to hear even when it's intentionally quiet.
Audio level mode is useful when you only want louder sounds to interrupt your music.
Set a threshold and DeskDuck responds when a selected app's audio reaches it. The release point sits slightly below the threshold so the volume does not constantly bounce around when a sound is hovering near the boundary.
Pick the desktop application whose volume should be lowered.
Choose which applications are allowed to interrupt your background music.
Choose between session activity and audio level depending on how you want DeskDuck to behave.
Decide how much of your normal music volume should remain while another app is playing.
Control how quickly the music moves down.
Give DeskDuck a little time before restoring the music after playback stops.
Control how quickly the music returns.
See which applications Windows currently recognizes as producing audio and which one is responsible for the current duck.
Review what DeskDuck detected and when it changed the music volume.
Close the main window without stopping DeskDuck. It can continue working quietly in the background until you exit it from the tray.
- Open DeskDuck and choose your background music app under WHAT TO DUCK.
- Under WHEN TO DUCK, select the applications whose audio should take priority.
- Choose Session activity when you want even very quiet playback to duck the music. Choose Audio level when only louder sounds should interrupt it.
- Turn Enabled on.
- Adjust the duck amount and timing until it feels right for you.
You can also use Test Duck to hear the transition without starting another application.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Target app | The application whose volume DeskDuck controls. |
| Trigger apps | The applications whose audio can cause the target to duck. |
| Session activity | Dips the target while a selected app is actively producing audio. |
| Audio level | Dips the target when a selected app's audio passes your chosen threshold. |
| Duck | Sets how much of the target's normal volume remains while ducked. |
| Attack | Controls how quickly the target volume moves down. |
| Hold | Sets how long DeskDuck waits after playback stops before restoring the volume. |
| Release | Controls how quickly the target volume returns to normal. |
The default response is:
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Duck | 25% of normal volume |
| Attack | 100 ms |
| Hold | 400 ms |
| Release | 800 ms |
These values are starting points rather than rules. Adjust them to match the way you work and listen.
The Sessions window is there for those moments when you wonder why DeskDuck did or didn't duck your music.
It shows the audio sessions currently known to Windows along with their application, state, current level, and role in DeskDuck.
The important state in activity mode is ACTIVE. An application being open is not enough by itself. DeskDuck is looking for an active audio session.
This also makes the window useful for checking how a particular application behaves on your system.
The Log window records important events such as:
- applications appearing as audio sessions
- session state changes
- ducking starting or stopping
- target volume changes
- target recovery after an interrupted ducking cycle
When something behaves unexpectedly, the log gives you a history of what DeskDuck saw.
DeskDuck is meant to stay out of your way once you've configured it.
Closing the main window hides it in the system tray rather than ending the application. From there you can reopen the main window, toggle automatic ducking, run Test Duck, open the Sessions or Log windows, or exit DeskDuck completely.
DeskDuck keeps track of the target application's volume before it starts ducking.
That lets it restore the volume you were actually using instead of replacing it with a fixed value. It also keeps a saved copy of the pre-duck volume so it can recover cleanly if the target application disappears during a ducking cycle or DeskDuck is closed before restoration finishes.
DeskDuck is built for Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Windows 11 is required for a few visual details in the window chrome; the core application is designed around Windows desktop audio.
To build DeskDuck from source, install the .NET 10 SDK.
The easiest way to use DeskDuck is to download a build from the repository's Releases page.
Extract the release package and launch DeskDuck.exe.
DeskDuck works locally on your computer. Its audio monitoring and volume control use Windows' own desktop audio system, so there is no account setup involved.
Open DeskDuck.slnx in Visual Studio, or build from the solution root:
dotnet buildTo launch the debug build from PowerShell:
Start-Process .\DeskDuck\bin\Debug\net10.0-windows\DeskDuck.exeDeskDuck stores its settings here:
%AppData%\DeskDuck\settings.json
The settings file is plain JSON and is recreated with safe defaults if it contains invalid values.
Check that DeskDuck is enabled, the correct target application is selected, and at least one trigger application is checked.
In Session activity mode, the trigger application must be actively producing audio. Simply having the application open is not enough.
DeskDuck remembers the volume from before the ducking cycle and uses that value when restoring the target.
If the target disappears while it is ducked, DeskDuck keeps that saved value and can reconcile it when the target returns.
Different desktop applications handle their audio differently, and some also change their behavior depending on their audio settings or driver.
Open Sessions and watch the application's state while starting and stopping playback. That shows exactly what DeskDuck is seeing from Windows.
DeskDuck discovers applications from the audio sessions currently known to Windows.
Starting playback in the application should normally make it appear, and newly created audio sessions are picked up while DeskDuck is running.
DeskDuck is currently a v1.0.1-beta release.
The main workflow is in place, but desktop audio behavior can vary from one application and audio driver to another. The Sessions and Log windows are included specifically to make those differences easier to understand.
Bug reports, feedback, and unusual use cases are welcome.
This started as a tiny personal annoyance. It would be pretty cool if it ended up being useful to somebody else, too.
DeskDuck is a native WPF desktop application built with C# and NAudio around Windows audio sessions.
The main project areas are:
DeskDuck/
├── Audio/
├── Controls/
├── Core/
├── Models/
├── Resources/
├── Services/
├── ViewModels/
├── Views/
└── Assets/
The core of the application lives in the session monitor, volume controller, ducking engine, settings service, and tray integration.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.