Devices and Applications

Devices and Applications

The Alternative device

Volume² controls a main device and an alternative device. The alternative device makes most of the advanced setups possible:

You want to…	Set Alternative device to…	Then
Mute the mic with a key	your microphone	hotkey action Mute On/Off (alternative device)
Control one application separately	Change volume for: Specified applications	bind hotkeys to the alternative device
Control a second output separately	Change volume for specific device	bind hotkeys to the alternative device
Control system volume and an application at once	Specified applications	main hotkeys stay on system volume

Limit: there is one alternative channel, so a game, Discord and a browser cannot have three independent hotkey pairs at the same time. Tracked in issue #262.

Switching devices

• Add devices to Favorites to cycle through them by click.
• Use the built-in Audio device manager window to switch outputs.
• FAQ #13 covers restoring single-click behaviour in that window.
• A notification can be shown when the audio source is switched; it has its own setting.

Current behaviour: cycling through favourites stops at the end of the list rather than wrapping around to the first device. Order your favourites so the device you use most is reachable in one direction.

Moving sound between headphones and speakers on a laptop

On many laptops, especially older ones, the headphone jack switches outputs physically, and software cannot override it.

The test is simple:

Try switching the device in the standard Windows audio device manager. If Windows can do it, Volume² can do it. If Windows cannot, Volume² cannot either.

If the jack does expose both devices, the audio driver may control this — Realtek and similar drivers often have a "disable front panel jack detection" option.

Devices that disappear after sleep

The cause is usually Windows removing the audio endpoint, not Volume²:

• Monitor or TV with built-in speakers: when the display sleeps or is switched off for more than a few minutes, the audio endpoint disappears from Windows entirely. After waking, it must be set as default again before Volume² can see it.
• Bluetooth speakers: after resuming from sleep, the device may not be picked up until Volume² is restarted.
• Monitor standby: on some systems the program stops responding after the monitor wakes.

What to try:

1. Enable Restart the hooks every 500 ms (System tab) — this addresses the input side.
2. In the audio device properties in Windows, prevent the endpoint from being disabled when idle.
3. In power settings, stop USB and audio devices from being powered down.
4. As a last resort, add a Scheduler task that re-selects the device.

Volume mixer window

The mixer window shows about three applications by default; the rest require the horizontal scrollbar, and the window size is not remembered between openings. The window width can be set in the mixer settings where your build offers it.

Tray icons

• The volume icon and device icon can be displayed together — see FAQ #11 for the exact settings.
• Playback and microphone icons can both be present, which is the practical way to see mic mute state.

When both the main and alternative playback devices are shown in the tray, the icons do not indicate which of the two is currently active.