Guides / Profiles
Save a setup as a profile
Set everything how you want it, then click "+ Save current" at the top of the flyout and name it. Click the pill any time to get that setup back.
The PROFILES row sits at the very top of the flyout, above your devices. It's there even when you have none saved — an empty row is how you find out the feature exists.
Saving one
- Get your machine how you want it — output, microphone, any app pins.
- Click + Save current.
- Type a name and press Enter. Gaming, Working, Music.
A profile captures the whole picture: your default output, your default microphone, and every app you've pinned somewhere.
Applying one
Click its pill. The pill lights up in blue to show it's what you're currently in.
If something in the profile can't be restored — a speaker that's switched off, an app it mentions that isn't running — Switchboard applies the rest and tells you what it skipped. It won't refuse the whole thing over one missing device.
Applying replaces, it doesn't merge
A profile is a whole picture, not a patch. Switching from Gaming to Music clears app pins that Music doesn't mention. Without that rule, yesterday's pins would pile up and your machine would drift into a state no profile describes — which is the thing that makes people stop trusting profiles.
Deleting one
Hover a pill and a × appears on it. Click that.
Why a pill lights up, and why volume doesn't count
A profile is shown as active when your current devices and pins match what it saved. Volume is deliberately ignored in that comparison — volume moves constantly, and a light that went out because you nudged the wheel would be a light that tells you nothing.
Where they're stored
%APPDATA%\Switchboard\profiles.json. Plain JSON, safe to back up or copy to
another machine. Uninstalling leaves it alone on purpose.
Faster ways
- Bind a hotkey to a profile — click the pill's keycap badge.
- Ctrl+Alt+S, then type the profile name.