I have a Dell Inspiron 530 using "Vista", with a Creative X-Fi sound card. I am not able to record any streaming material, as the recording facility is restricted to 'Line In', or Mic. inputs. "Wave/MP3" or "What You Hear" input selections are not available. The sound card has this facility, however I am told that the restriction is applied by Vista. (I did this frequently, on my previous computer,with XP). Any suggestions?

Vista sound recording is there...just hidden

Try this to capture sound from any program in Vista

1. Go to the Sound item in ur control panel
2. click on the tab Recording
3. Right click on the background of the tab and select "Show Disabled Devices"
4. find the Wave Out mix item and then right click on it and select Enable
5. It will now show up as a device channel in a few different applications like Sonar etc..

Recording "live" audio

Thank you 'Anonymous' for your reply. I have followed this track several times and cannot proceed beyond 'Show Disabled Devices' as 'Wave Out Mix' just does not appear. Must I assume that my Dell/Vista PC does not support this, or do you know if there is yet a way around it?

record streaming audio

I am surprised that the creative card doesn't allow you to record I fitted one to a Vista machine and it solved this very problem make sure you are using the features associated with the creative drivers and not the generic Vista ones OR a simple work around is to buy a $4 double adapter from Tandy plug it into the green (line-out) socket on the soundcard plug your speakers / headphones into one side and run a lead from the other side to the blue (mic) socket on the sound card - this will feed what you hear into the "line- in" or wave and you can record that.