10 Things - Volume Mixer

Our "10 Things You May Not Know About Windows Vista" series continues as we explore one of the least-known features in Windows Vista:  the Volume Mixer.  Although it might not be as well-touted as the Aero interface, you may find it's one of the more useful features available.

I'm sure we've all had the experience of working on one application when another application's sound suddenly blasted out your speakers.  It can be disconcerting anytime, embarrassing when it happens during a meeting and downright painful when using headphones.

Windows XP had a single control for all sounds, and this controlled only the hardware.  If an application's sound was louder or softer than that specified by Windows XP's volume control, you had to constantly adjust the volume.

Windows Vista allows you to choose the right volume for any running application.  It's also very easy to use.  Right-click the speaker icon in the notification area (systray) of your desktop, then click Volume Mixer to open the control.  You'll see a list of programs running.  Then, just use the slider bar to adjust the volume up or down.  (Note:  If some of the sliders have a black background, just move the slider and Windows Vista will re-draw it.  KB article 938308 explains this more.)

You can adjust volume for use with either speakers or headphones simply by selecting the desired output in the device column.  You can also choose to mute individual programs so as to not be interrupted by sounds from other running programs.  If you change the output device, you will need to readjust the volume.

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Comments

  1. Nick White
    Posted on: August 30, 2007 at 12:50PM  

    Hey Roy99999999999:  you can turn on the audio icon in the systray by right-clicking the task bar, selecting Properties | Notification Area, then selecting the Volume icon.

  2. JessicaDuquette
    Posted on: August 31, 2007 at 12:47PM  

    thanks, but my problem is not that the volume is too LOUD, it's that for many programs, I can't hear the sound very well. I have checked volume mixer and everything is all the way to the top (100%), and I promise I am not going deaf, some things are LOUD and others, I can barely hear. Is there a fix for this?

    thanks!

    Jessica from It's Not About Your Stuff

  3. brand
    Posted on: September 03, 2007 at 12:47PM  

    so useful that it doesn't even control the bass or treble tones anymore.  how fantastic.

    Now if someone can supply a rundll32 like line that opens the "speakers properties" window directly, that'd be nice.

  4. fredfriar
    Posted on: September 03, 2007 at 4:40PM  

    I suppose it's cute to have volume sliders for each app now, but all I want is one or two keystrokes to get the line-in level adjustment and the mute button for line-in.  How do I get line-in to appear in the mixer without going through a ridiculous number of steps which basically leads me into the control panel?

  5. deft
    Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 10:33PM  

    Hey there. It's very interesting the new Vista volume mixer... But I`m having some trouble with it. I use VLC (VideoLAN) to stream some mp3 sets I've created, and when I try to stream from a DEVICE, Vista shows Rear MIC, Front MIC, Line IN and Microphone instead of showing up the DEVICES, like Sigmatel High Definition Card. Why this happens? In Windows XP only the real device cards shows up. It's a Vista problem? Either other streaming programs didn't show up devices, just MICs and LINE IN. (Using Vista Ultimate 64.).

    Cyaaa!

  6. Gerardo Urdaneta
    Posted on: September 07, 2007 at 1:47PM  

    It's petty cool when are listenig music and another aplicacion like de msn stard to pest off you with de sound and nuge just simpli you can turn down or even mute

  7. JohnHind
    Posted on: September 27, 2007 at 8:51AM  

    It's an improvement, but not a big enough one given the time we've been waiting!

    WHAT MICROSOFT SHOULD HAVE DONE: Give each app its own virtual sound card and map the outputs of these to the physical outputs using a software crossbar mixer.

    Advantages of this:

    1. User could change the output being used by an app without having to shut down and restart the app as they have to at present (even with Vista's built-in apps like Media Center and Media Player)- i.e. switch from speakers to headphones while leaving other apps on the speakers.

    2. An app could be set to feed into multiple outputs, for example multi-room audio distribution.

    3. Downmixing could be provided to feed multi-channel audio feeds into stereo or mono outputs.

    4. Outputs from different apps could be positioned on multi-speaker sound stages under user control - for example, PC noises could be positioned to seem to come from the direction of the PC.

    USB audio adapters are now so cheep that it is really tempting to use one for headphones, another for workstation monitor built-in speakers and leave the main output for 5-1 or 7-1 cinema use. But it is still a pain to work a system like this in Vista software.

  8. Steve Ball
    Posted on: September 28, 2007 at 12:23AM  

    Hi JohnHind -

    Thanks for your thoughtful post and great suggestions.  We have considered many of the ideas you suggested, but with Windows Vista, the magnitude of the changes we made was already large for even one major release.  That said, we have a long list of proposed ideas and features we're considering for future releases, and many of those you suggested are on our radar.  

    Thanks again for taking time to notice and offer your feedback.  

    -Steve

    PS - we may address some of the specific ideas you mention in future blog posts as we've already been thinking about them in depth.

  9. Dudu Lins
    Posted on: October 31, 2007 at 4:39PM  

    I found this mixer stuff a little bit complicated, since I don't have the option to change a application from one device to another... So much time wasted when I have to close iTunes and re-open since I was using speakers and want to use headphones... Or unplug headphones and plug back in and the app doesn't work... Microsoft should do something about it in service pack 1 to come!!!

  10. liebezeit
    Posted on: November 04, 2007 at 4:01AM  

    "2. An app could be set to feed into multiple outputs, for example multi-room audio distribution."

    Please, please, I beg you! Implement this in SP1 or earlier. JohnHind is right on target here. At the bare minimum let us output the entire mix to multiple outputs, like we could with XP.

    If this and the monitor-profile-resetting bug were fixed, I would be fairly happy with my computer. As it is I am seriously considering going back to XP, which would be a serious hassle.

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