wtf is taskbaraudioswitcher?

Taskbar Audio Switcher is a small Windows 11 utility that puts a compact audio control widget right on your taskbar, next to the clock and system tray icons. Instead of digging through Windows sound settings, you get quick access to switch between speakers, headphones, or an HDMI output, mute or switch microphones, and adjust volume, all from one small bar that sits with your other taskbar icons. Beyond simple volume control, it includes a mixer that expands above the taskbar to show individual apps and lets you adjust each one's volume separately, plus a feature to redirect a specific app's audio to a different output device entirely, useful if you want one program to play through headphones while everything else stays on speakers. It can move itself between multiple monitors with a click, and scales properly on high resolution screens with different zoom levels. The developer explains a deliberate design choice: rather than hooking deeply into Windows' own taskbar process, which could be flagged as suspicious by antivirus software, the utility runs as its own small floating window that repositions itself whenever the taskbar changes, such as when you minimize a window or show the desktop. This means it may very briefly disappear and reappear in those situations, and the README states this is expected behavior rather than a bug. Installation is available two ways: downloading a portable version directly from the project's releases page and running the executable, or installing it through the Microsoft Store for automatic updates. The project has an active changelog documenting many small fixes across recent versions, covering things like startup behavior, multi-monitor menu positioning, and how per-application audio routing works across programs like Firefox or Chrome that use multiple background processes.