We are living in a more complicated world for our PCs these days, it
seems.

I have laptop (HP Pav dv9500t):

1. with its own Altec-Lansing speakers and microphone built-in to the hood
2. an earphone jack I use regularly
3. and a Bluetooth-capable Jabra BT8010 stereo headset to which I pair
4. a Logitech webcam with microphone

I am continually having trouble with the PC unable to switch to a sound
device when it is detected and connected.

For example, the bluetooth headset resists being connected for stereo
audio service (it usually requires turning off then on the device again).

Then when it is off or disconnected, the sound is not returned to another
device like the built-in speakers.

Before I got the headset, I used to have the sound go though the earphones
when the jack was connected. Now I connect the jack with the bluetooth
headset disconnected/turned off, and I don't hear sound out of earphones
or speakers.

Often in order to get sound through a device, it is necessary to close and
re-open the sound-producing application.

Perhaps better than an automatic detection, it is better just to have a
controller that one opens and says: output through the speakers on the
laptop, or output through the bluetooth headset, or now do it through the
earphones.

I don't even want to talk about the struggle I go through to get the
microphone working: the one on the laptop, the one in the bluetooth
headset, and the one in the webcam!

Whose problem is this anyway? The machine maker's? Microsoft? I talked
to Jabra and they said this is not their problem (nothing they can do
about it).