I am looking around that area and what I found so far http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms789375.aspx http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/8/f/18f8cee2-0b64-41f2-893d-a6f2295b40c8/DW04022_WINHEC2004.ppt I can guess that an audio class filter can do the job but I didnt see any implementation of that and I dont see how its not common. one more thing I found that the RDP is doing audio redirection but the documenetation on that is little. I'm actually looking for a way to detect if the system is playing audio at a given time and not the data itself. do you have any leads on that?