2008 June

A few freeware volume programs

Wow, it has been a while since I have had a chance to post anything, so to my dedicated readers, I appologize.

Do you often need to easily control your computer's sound volume, especially to quickly mute and unmute? Do you find the Windows volume control more trouble than you would like, because you have to click it 2 times from the System Tray? Well there are several freeware tools that may help address this and other issues, and I have probably tried them all before choosing Nirsoft Volumouse to control my sound volume with my wheel mouse, and to quickly mute or unmute the volume by user-assigned hotkeys. With Volumouse you can define your own set of rules for determining when the wheel will be used for changing the sound volume, and can assign multiple settings (up to 5). As an example, mine is set to scroll the volume up or down whenever my mouse pointer is over any part of the Taskbar (not just over the Volumouse icon), and to mute or unmute (returning to the previously assigned volume settings) based on the hotkeys Alt+Left or Alt+Right. Initially I had assigned volume control also whenever my mouse pointer was over any part of any windows Titlebar, but I ended up disabling that because of too many accidental activations. You can download a setup file, which is by far the easiest solution for most people, or follow the instructions on the website to manually install the program, which in effect makes it "portable", allowing you to even run it from a USB "thumb drive". Volumouse supports Windows 98 through Vista, but not Windows 95. Nirsoft also has many other great, small tools, and most (probably all) require no installation - just download, unzip, and run.

If you do not want a memory-resident program (and Volumouse is really light on resources), and prefer a simpler utility to mute/unmute your volume, I have found several excellent, tiny utilities that will do exactly that. Once you have them, you can assign hotkeys to run them from a shortcut (link) in your Start Menu, put a shortcut in your Quicklaunch menu for fast access, or even set up a schedule in Windows Task Manager to mute and unmute on schedule. As an example, I have my computer set to automatically mute at 10:30 PM every night, to keep from disturbing anyone's sleep, and to automatically unmute each morning at 6:30 AM. If I happen to be working at the computer past 10:30 PM and need sound activated, a simple hotkey will unmute it.

Mute, a 1 HOUR SOFTWARE by Skrommel (DonationCoder, author of Find and Run Robot and many more excellent tools) program, Mutes or unmutes the speaker. No install needed, just place it in your Quicklaunch toolbar for easy access. It is only 205 KB, and not memory resident. Run it to toggle the mute/unmute state and it exits. 1 HOUR SOFTWARE by Skrommel has many more interesting and useful programs available. All are tiny, require no installation, and are made with the freeware AutoHotkey program.

Mute by Christian Klukas simply turns the system sound on and off. If you put it in your Quick Launch toolbar (or any toolbar), it's a faster way to mute or unmute sound than waiting for the volume control to appear when you click the Volume icon in the tray. If you add command-line switches, it can do even more. More uses are possible in batch files or through the Windows Task Scheduler. Mute is 318 KB, not memory resident, and requires no installation.

I actually prefer Wizmo by Steve Gibson at Gibson Research Corporation, however, as it can both mute and unmute without affecting the stored volume setting, and also seperately adjust the volume to a given percentage. In addition, it has many other features, such as screen-blanking, screensavers, log-off, standby, hibernate, reboot, shutdown, and many more, all in a tiny (40 KB, smaller than either Mute) no-install exe file. I use this in addition to Volumouse, and because it is not memory-resident, will work even if Volumouse is not running. I also use Wizmo for the automatic daily mute/unmute that I mentioned above.

for more info on using Mute (or NirCmd or Wizmo) to Automatically Mute Your Speakers Overnight, see either InspectMyGadget article or Lifehacker article which has several other tools and ideas.

iVol is a program you can use to adjust the sound volume of your computer in an extremely easy way. Just press your mouse wheel and scroll it up or down. You do not even have to move your hand! In addition, it also supports Shift+Wheel as an alternative. The program can display an on-screen volume level, and also allows you to switch between audio devices using Alt+Wheel. Latest Feature: Double click mouse wheel to toggle "Mute" status. iVol is available for Mac or Windows computers, but Vista is not yet supported.

VolumeTouch is a freeware replacement utility for the Windows speaker icon usually located in the bottom right of your screen, next to the clock. With VolumeTouch you can adjust the volume instantly from any application without leaving your current work. VolumeTouch is available for Windows 2000 or Windows XP, and requires .NET framework, which may be a downside for some people.

volctrl is a small hotkey volume control (30 kb without installer) to replace the standard Windows audio constrol in the System Tray, but controlled via hotkeys. You can change hotkey combinations (modifiers can include ALT, CTRL, SHIFT, WIN-key, with or without modifiers). You can download the setup file from Rexsoft Homepage to download the no-install version. It is in Russian, but there are so few links, that it is easy to find what you need - just look at the status bar as you hover over the links. Doesn't work with Windows Vista.

Sound Control is a freeware replacement Windows Sound Mixer applet which together with most of the features of the standard Windows mixer it also allows you to add hot keys to adjust any combination of your sound mixer volumes. Support to control Winamp with a series of hot keys, CD Player and an On Screen Display is also included. Requires Windows 95 / 98 / NT4 / 2000 / XP / Millennium-Me.

MINIVOL is an icon sized volume control that can be placed anywhere on your computer screen. It will remain on top of most running applications and remembers the last position where it was placed so it returns to that position when it is next started. Because of its small size it remains relatively inconspicuous on the screen and doesn't intrude on whatever you are doing. It is especially useful while you are surfing the web or running audio applications. It consists of two buttons which increase or decrease the volume by 5% at each press. Other functions are: exit, minimise, mute & restore volume to 50% actual size The download is a self-extracting zip file. Put a short cut to it on the bottom bar. It is a free-standing application and doesn't install on your machine. To remove simply delete its files. (readme.txt explains functions)