While poking through the registry trying to find a way disable Automatic Gain Control (AGC) for Polycom RealPresence Desktop (version 3.3.0.50871) video conferencing software, I stumbled upon a different registry key that addresses another annoying problem and that is to keep RPD from minimizing itself to the taskbar. Low and behold, it doesn’t appear that there is a setting associated with this registry key inside the program to disable this functionality either.
As a side note, I did have to open a support request with Polycom over the AGC issue as it automatically takes over the audio recording interface even after disabling all of Windows control over the settings and it negatively impacts conference quality. Because the software automatically dials down the input level of the recording interface, the user then has to yell just to be heard, which only further possibly causes the input level to go down even more, without ever adjusting the audio level back up. Currently, there is no way to turn this off, so it will probably end up as a feature request for the next software release.
While some people might call this a feature and clearly there are cases where some users might want this, the problem for me is that I don’t want RPD running in the background at all times. In addition to that, to actually close the program there’s several extra steps you have to take, although we’re talking milliseconds here in the grand scheme of things, it’s still annoying.
Upon clicking the X in the top right hand corner, that will initially send it to the taskbar tray, then you have to right-click on the RPD icon and then select Exit. To actually close the application when you click on the X, edit the following Registry key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Polycom\RealPresence\Desktop
Edit the REG_SZ key called “ExitOnClick” and set the value to “TRUE”.