Edit: Possibly resolved. Noticed there were a bunch of updates that mint wanted to install, but which required a reboot. Live sessions reset everything on reboot, so I obliterated windows and did a full install, then updated. Mic issues seem to be resolved now, dunno what update it was that fixed it. I only say possibly resolved because I haven't finished fully testing it due to time/location constraints but the tests I did do seem to work fine.
First a quick thanks to everyone who helped me out before; ended up using Cinnamon Edge and the wifi and bluetooth both work.
However, I am having issues with audio inputs. For whatever reason, it seems to detect audio outputs as the audio input (at least from Firefox). e.g. when I have music playing from a youtube tab and try using my mic, it detects the music from the yt tab as the input, and doesn't detect any input from my mic itself. This occurs regardless of whether I have bluetooth headphones connected or not. How can I fix this?
Edit: Still having issues with it. Installed pavucontrol (after a lot of trouble), the only input is from monitors but I don't see anything I can do with it.
Issues I was having with installing pavucontrol and the fix I found:
From the command line, it returns Waiting for cache lock: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend. It is held by process 4932 (synaptic) until it cancels itself. From the software manager, I get E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend. It is held by process 4932 (synaptic) W: Be aware that removing the lock file is not a solution and may break your system. E: Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend), is another process using it?. Ended up using sudo lsof /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend to find the process using that lock and killing it (it ended up being process 4932 lol).
2nd Edit: Messed with the configurations in pavucontrol. Shows two, uh, things I guess: HD-Audio Generic and Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) HD Audio Controller.
HD-Audio Generic has three profiles: the first is Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (unplugged) (unavailable). The other two are the same thing, except one has Digital Stereo 7.1 and the other has 5.1. None of these seem to do anything.
Family 17h (Models 10h-1f) HD Audio Controller has 3 as well: Analog Stereo Output, Analog Stereo Duplex, and Analog Stereo Input (unplugged) (unavailable).
I don't think I can figure this out. I have the same issue even when connecting my bluetooth headset, where the input mic registers the output audio as the input for some reason. The "monitor" of Family 17h (I don't really know what it means by monitor) picks up the output as input, and the same goes for when my headset is connected.
I've previously tried to do that backwards i.e. to deliberately record the audio output as an input, so I wonder if the process would be similar... but backwards?
"Pulseaudio Volume Control" (pavucontrol) in the Mint repository should allow you to set what different audio sources are. "Monitor" is generally the "record your output sound as an input".
There's a bit of info on this page from thr Audacity manual: Audacity: Recording Computer Playback on Linux
Also may depend what you're trying to put the audio in - because it may be a setting in the software (i.e. OBS/Audacity/A Steam Game) rather than the system itself.