Quickly switching between Stereo/Quadraphonic speakers

Hello everyone!

My desktop has a basic integrated VIA HD audio chip. For output purposes, I have a pair of passably good headphones (suitable for music, films and games) as well as the integrated speakers in my LCD screen, which are awful but perfectly fine for podcasts, YouTube, alarm clocks, chatting on Skype, non-immersive games etc. Currently, the headphones are connected as the front speakers, and the monitor as the rear speakers. (My case also has front connectors for headphones, but I prefer not to use those since (a) the sound cable would get in the way and (b) the sound quality is slightly, but noticeably worse.)

What I'd like to do is to be able to turn the monitor's speakers on and off as quickly and easily as possible.

Unfortunately, the monitor doesn't have a Mute button - or rather, it's buried in the annoyingly slow OSD, and turning the speakers on/off requires nine button presses, taking around ten seconds every time.

What I do right now is: right click on the volume icon -> Playback devices -> "Speakers" -> Configure -> switch either to Stereo or Quadraphonic -> click 'next/finish' three times -> Click OK. This is faster than using the monitor "Mute", but not by much.

Here's the idea I had: if the stereo/quadraphonic setting for my default speakers happens to be stored as a Registry entry, and if the change takes effect immediately even upon manually editing the Registry, I could just put two .reg files on my desktop and switch the monitor speakers on/off with a double click (or give them a shortcut and a keyboard quickbind).

Does anyone know if the above could work, and where such a Registry entry might be located? Or any other approach that might achieve what I want?

Thank you for reading this!

The usual and the way it's designed to work is you connect your speakers to the rear GREEN speaker jack on the PC (stereo speakers) or to multiple output jacks for 5.1, 7.1 speaker systems. When you want to connect your headphones, you connect them to the front panel headphone jack and when you do that it automatically mutes the external speakers.

fireberd said:

The usual and the way it's designed to work is you connect your speakers to the rear GREEN speaker jack on the PC (stereo speakers) or to multiple output jacks for 5.1, 7.1 speaker systems. When you want to connect your headphones, you connect them to the front panel headphone jack and when you do that it automatically mutes the external speakers.

I just tested that and it doesn't happen - the monitor speakers keep playing after connecting the headphones to the front panel. Perhaps it's a difference between Realtek and VIA.

(That's in addition to the minor issues with using the front panel I mentioned in the OP.)

Thanks for the suggestion, BTW.