Routing sound in Windows 7 to separate devices

Question

When I'm running games through Steam (for example Skyrim), I like to use my Razer USB headset and I would like to have devices such as Google Chrome or VLC etc. playing through my speakers at the same time.

Is there a way to set specific applications in Windows 7 to different output devices?

My current set-up allows everything through either the USB or through the speakers (setting them as default audio device),

I am running Windows 7 64 Ultimate and would love it if someone could come up with a solution for this speaker problem.

Answer 1

Old question, but...

IndieVolume works for this purpose on 32-bit Windows OSes (XP, Vista, 7 at least)

CheVolume works on 32 and 64-bit Win7+

I'm still looking for more of these... CheVolume has some issues (Massive UI latency, inability to easily mute all devices), but may be the only audio-output-selector which works on Windows x64

Answer 2

One trick to do what you want to do is set the default device you want it to output to before you start the program, after it starts change the default device to your other sound device. The original program should still be playing on the original audio device but any new audio programs will play on the new audio device you selected.

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P.S.
Some software will have a option to output sound to devices other than the default device. In VLC it can be found in the preferences menu.

Answer 3

You can select multiple devices from the Playback Devices menu, and then change per-application volume.

Answer is here in step-by-step format.