Audacity Forum

First time using Audacity I get an error message when trying to record. Audacity says I have no capture device when clearly I have a microphone that Windows recognizes. What is wrong with this Audacity program?

You've probably either not set up Audacity to use the microphone, or not set up your computer to make the microphone available for recording.
Why don't you tell us a bit more about your system, including which version of Windows, which exact version of Audacity (look in Help menu > About Audacity), what sort of microphone (in particular if it's a USB microphone and if not how it's connected to the computer) and what you have done so far to set it all up.

Strange. I shut down the program accidentally while looking for answers to your question. When I started it up again, it was able to record. Very strange.

If you're using a USB microphone, it must be connected and recognised by Windows before you open Audacity.