Issues with 5.1 Surround Sound with Windows 10

Part of the problem is that even with only two channels form a source it should still play through all speakers right?

At least with speaker fill enabled it should, and yes native sound is played through all speakers (not that I got 5.1 just for the windows alert noise).

But anything, anything at all that plays stereo or two channel only plays through the front left and right speakers. 

I get that a lot of web sources only give stereo but you would think windows would at least be able to use that to fill the rest of the speakers.

I can not get 5.1 Surround Sound to play for my computer with any audio player; i.e. DVD/CD optical drive, Pandora, etc. but when I run an audio test using the device manager it tests perfectly.  I have heard that there might be a compatibility issue with 5.1/7.1 Surround Sound and Windows 10.

Please let me know if anybody has had this problem and what the solution is.

5.1 not working

Either it's a "technical" issue, then Microsoft would have fixed it back in 2015 when people started complaining about it.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware-winpc/realtek-51-not-working-in-windows-10/56eeed34-fbb2-4c92-9ab0-3ed1f42706ef

Or that it's a money issue, then you are never going to see a fix.

Since time immemorial, there exist modded drivers removing Dolby's licensing restrictions thus allowing end-users to play 5.1 on non-paying computers (using Dolby's ddl).

I fixed the netflix issue with an extension code in Chrome. lol...but I don't do netflix.   Firefox is easier.  Just wondering if there was a similar fix out there.  Like I said before....Don't know or care if it's a Microsoft issue.  Just wanting to see if others ran into this. Apparently many many have.  Then the question was were they able to find a go around like they did with netflix.  That's all

The answer is simple, Microsoft didn't pay for it.

For the last 20 years, Microsoft had only paid for it during Windows 7's 2009-2012 existence.

You bought a computer in the Windows XP era and you bought a DVD burner --- the DVD burner came with DVD software player so you didn't have to pay for extra money for the Media Center edition. You skip Vista because everybody hated Vista. You got Windows 7, used your old DVD burner but Microsoft gave you a free DVD software player. You skip Windows 8 because everybody skipped Windows 8. You now have Windows 10, which like Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 8, doesn't come with Dolby Digital.

Maybe you even bought a motherboard or sound card that came with Dolby Digital Live which does real time Dolby Digital encoding.

The Netflix app is basically the Edge browser + Dolby license --- and it is Netflix that is paying Dolby money for the licensing fee.

You know why Google/Youtube created their own codecs? They don't want to pay for the licensing fees.

The sooner you understand that this is a money issue and not a technical issue --- the sooner you will realize that there is no possible fix.

What? You think that Microsoft couldn't fix a simple "bug" in 5 year's Windows 10 lifetime.

There were 4 parties that could have paid for it in the past for you --- the DVD burner manufacturer, Microsoft, motherboard manufacturer and sound card manufacturer. You can go to Microsoft Store and pay $15 for Dolby Atmos.