Uninstalling the Windows host left every audio device it minted behind forever — and the installer script documented that as a decision #145

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enricobuehler merged 1 commits from worktree-win-audio-uninstall-cleanup into main 2026-08-09 19:30:33 +00:00

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Author	SHA1	Message	Date
enricobuehler	d87a8df28d	fix(windows): uninstall removes the audio devices the host mints ... The field report: uninstalling punktfunk left "Punktfunk Speakers", "Punktfunk Microphone" and the per-pad "Wireless Controller" endpoints sitting in Windows' Sound settings forever. They have no installer payload behind them, which is why nothing in the uninstall touched them. The host mints them at RUNTIME as extra devnodes on Valve's streaming-audio drivers, and both providers deliberately re-resolve their devnode across restarts instead of re-minting it — so they persist by design. Persistent across restarts must not mean permanent: the .iss even documented leaving them behind as a decision. New `driver uninstall --audio` leg (a third Inno [UninstallRun] entry, after the two driver legs and well after `service uninstall`, since a live host re-mints on its next wiring pass): * restores the default playback device first, if a host that died mid-stream left it parked on our loopback sink — otherwise Windows re-picks by its own ranking rather than giving the operator back the device they had; * removes every MEDIA-class devnode carrying one of our three durable owner markers (pad slot, minted role, probe), phantoms included; * deletes each endpoint's MMDevices record, resolved through the devnode link BEFORE the devnode goes. Marker-matched, never name-matched: our instances are name-identical to Steam's own, and Steam's devnodes, its drivers, and a VB-CABLE from the era when we bundled one carry no marker and stay untouched. A ROOT\ enumeration guard means a marker-shaped value on a real sound card can never cost the user their hardware. The registry half is best-effort: those keys are SYSTEM-owned and the uninstaller runs elevated but as a user, so on a stock box the record survives as an inert NOTPRESENT entry that Sound settings only shows behind "Show Disconnected Devices". The device itself is gone either way, and seizing ownership of SYSTEM registry keys from an uninstaller is a worse thing to ship than that scrap.	2026-08-09 20:53:22 +02:00