silence!

Free, open-source microphone mute control for Windows with global hotkeys, hold-to-talk, gamepad input, overlay feedback, and tray controls.

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Overview

silence! is a native Windows mic mute utility built for fast, reliable control from anywhere. Mute a specific microphone or all active microphones with keyboard, mouse, or gamepad input, then confirm the state with tray icons, sounds, and an on-screen overlay.

Recent additions

• Gamepad hotkeys, combos, and hold-to-mute input
• Auto-mute on startup or after inactivity, with optional unmute on activity
• Multiple shortcuts per action, plus dedicated mute and unmute shortcuts
• Clickable overlay button mode and expanded overlay customization
• Tray icon style picker, live preview, and refresh-overlay control
• State sync and startup reliability fixes in the latest v1.9.x updates

Features

Input and mute control

• Multiple hotkeys per action for toggle, mute, and unmute
• Keyboard, mouse, modifier-only, and gamepad bindings
• Hold-to-mute, hold-to-unmute, or toggle-while-holding behavior
• Optional "ignore modifiers" matching for more flexible shortcuts
• Microphone selection with an All Microphones mode

Feedback and customization

• Visual overlay with icon-only or icon-and-text modes
• Overlay visibility modes: always visible, muted only, unmuted only, or after toggle
• Clickable overlay mode that turns the overlay into an on-screen mute button
• Customizable overlay appearance, size, opacity, colors, and position
• Three tray icon styles: standard, filled circle, and dot
• Built-in sound themes plus custom audio files (MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, M4A, WMA)
• Separate sound behavior for toggle, hold, and auto-mute flows

Everyday quality-of-life

• Start with Windows, launch minimized to tray, or start already muted
• Auto-mute after inactivity with optional auto-unmute on activity
• Left-click tray toggle for fast mute changes from the notification area
• Automatic update checks and in-app update flow
• English and Russian localization
• Native WinUI 3 interface with Windows 11 Mica and Windows 10 Acrylic styling

Screenshots

General and hotkeys	Hold to Mute

Sounds	Overlay

Tray icon styles	Auto-Mute

Installation

Download a release

1. Open the latest release.
2. Pick the package for your architecture:
   • Installer: silence-v<version>-x64-setup.exe, silence-v<version>-x86-setup.exe, or silence-v<version>-arm64-setup.exe
   • Portable: silence-v<version>-win-x64.zip, silence-v<version>-win-x86.zip, or silence-v<version>-win-arm64.zip
3. Install it or extract the portable archive.
4. Launch silence!.exe.

No MSIX packaging is required.

Build from source

Requirements:

• Windows 10 version 1809 (build 17763) or later
• .NET 8 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 with the Windows application development workload

git clone https://github.com/vertopolkalf/Silence.git
cd Silence

Then open Silence!.sln in Visual Studio, or publish the app with your preferred .NET / Windows App SDK workflow for win-x64, win-x86, or win-arm64.

Contributing

Bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.