VolumeČ : Volume Control Replacement for Windows
Microsoft Windows comes with a standard volume control which is a simple and plain tool to control the volume of a Windows system. Increasing or decreasing the volume using this standard control is tricky and not so easy. Fortunately there is a replacement tool called Volume2 (or Volume2) available for Windows volume control. Volume2 is a free tool that sits in the notification area and lets you control the volume using your mouse wheel or pre-specified hotkeys of your keyboard.
Volume2 is a free and open source advanced Windows volume control application. It can completely replace the standard volume control of Windows. This application lets you easily change the sound volume just by rotating the mouse wheel or by using keyboard hot keys or just moving your mouse near a screen edge. It includes an audio mixer with advanced volume controls support, a scheduler and an on-screen display (OSD) with skin support. It also gives command line support and the ability to store and recall different unlimited presets via one mouse click or system-wide hot keys. It is a multilingual application that supports many languages.
You can download either the installable edition of Volume2 or the portable edition. I prefer the portable edition as it does not require to be installed on your system. When you run Volume2, it places an icon in your system tray (notification area) at the bottom-right corner of your screen. You can double click on this notification area icon to open the Volume2 options window.
In the Options window, you can choose various settings like audio device to control, volume changing speed, channel balance, OSD skins, mouse behavior, keyboard hotkeys etc. You can also enable Screen Edge options to change volume when you slide your mouse near the edge of your screen (monitor). Under the Schedule section, you can also schedule Volume2 to automatically apply a preset volume setting at a specified time.
What I liked most about this program is the OSD feature. The on-screen display (OSD) shows the volume level in a very pretty, tiny, overlay window that always stays on top. You can change the settings to make it always on top, show only when you mute the volume or show it for a specific period of time after changing the volume. These OSD windows are skinnable and you can choose from a multitude of nice and eye pleasing skins. In the following picture, three of the stunning skins for OSD are shown.
Volume2 is a very nice looking volume control application for Windows. It has fantastic skins for the on-screen display window. It allows you to control your volume in multiple ways like through keyboard hotkeys, mouse scroll wheel and screen edge method. So if you want a nicer and more advanced volume control than the standard volume control of Windows, then you can download and install Volume2 on your system. You can download it from http://my.opera.com/irzyxa/blog/.
