Directsound no longer works

So I was on Windows 7 and was messing with permissions on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the registry. Something happened and it broke sound. I could not get directsound to work again in media applications that use it such as VLC and Mediamonkey.

When I ran dxdiag.exe, it said everything was working but I didn't have any sound in VLC and VLC's log repeatedly said "directsound error: cannot start playing buffer: (hr=0x80070057)".

So I decided to upgrade to Windows 10 hoping that would fix the problem and after reinstalling the Realtek drivers, I still can not get directsound to function. Dxdiag still says everything is OK but now VLC is saying...

"directsound error: cannot initialize DirectSound main error: module not functional main error: failed to create audio output"

When I was on Win7, I tried changing the permissions back. On Win10, I tried removing the Realtek audio device and rescanning for changes and I also tried reinstalling the drivers.

I really don't think the problem is hardware related or has anything to do with my Realtek drivers. I am sure that the problem has to do with the registry and permissions for directx or directsound and had to have been something that would carry over or be unaffected by migrating to a new Windows OS.

I don't know what else to do.