The following are instructions and screenshots of a Dell Vostro 410 with an on-board Realtek sound card and the Realtek HD Audio Manager. This workaround became such a chore and annoyance that I finally dug into my Windows 7 sound card setup and figured out how to output audio simultaenously from the speakers and the headset! It sounds like a silly discovery but for those of us who regularly use Gmail calling, Skype and various audio tools like Audacity (for editing our podcasts), this solution finally brought peace and harmony back to computing. So I am one of those who just plug in and unplug my headset.

I am one to hate spending money on parts when there is absolutely no need to do so. Have you ever been frustrated by repeatedly having to unplug your headset from the front of your computer just so you can hear audio from your speakers? Or are you savvy enough to have used a splitter so that both your headset and speakers output audio simultaneously. Computers are a wonderful thing but sometimes, the simplest tasks seem to be the most difficult to accomplish.

Speakers and headphones simultaneously