audio - Detecting when head phones are plugged in

Question

Is there any way to determine, programmatically when headphones are plugged into the computer?

Essentially, I just want to write a simple tool that will mute my sound unless headphones are plugged in. Is this even possible?

Answer 1

In Windows Vista and beyond, you can use the device arrival and removal notifications and retrieve the endpoint formfactor to determine if the manufacturer of your audio solution considers a particular endpoint a "headphone".

Before Vista there was no way of determining this information.