Tips and Recipes

Tips and Recipes

Four settings worth configuring on a fresh install

1. System → Restart the hooks every 500 ms. Prevents the "stopped working after a few hours" class of problem.
2. System → Run as Administrator + startup As Task — if you want control over the taskbar, the Start menu and elevated applications.
3. Main → volume change speed, adjusted to your preference.
4. Main → control method: logarithmic, unless you prefer linear.

Then back up %AppData%\Volume2\Config.ini. Copying that one file is the fastest way to reproduce the same setup on another machine.

Give each output its own volume level

Volume² has no per-device volume memory, but the scheduler covers it:

1. Scheduler → new task.
2. Trigger: device change.
3. Action: set volume, at the level you want for that device.
4. Repeat for each device.

One key to mute the microphone

1. Main → Alternative device = your microphone.
2. Hotkeys → Action Mute On/Off (alternative device), Parameter = the microphone.
3. Enable the separate microphone tray icon so the mute state is visible.

Turn a game down without touching everything else

Alternative device → Change volume for: Specified applications → select the game. Bind a second hotkey pair to the alternative device; system volume stays on your main keys.

Only one such channel exists at a time — see issue #262.

Control the volume from your phone

1. System → enable remote access.
2. Press the button beside the option to open the control page in your browser.
3. Note the address — by default http://127.0.0.1:22222/; from another device, use the PC's LAN IP.
4. Bookmark it on your phone.

For more than the default control, view the page source and add your own buttons. For automation, use GET /tasks and POST /tasks/execute?id=taskId.

Keep the port on your LAN — the server has no authentication.

Customise an OSD skin

1. Copy a skin folder inside Osd Skins under a new name.
2. Edit Skin.xml in the copy — the colour and size of the level text are defined there.
3. Restart Volume², then select the new skin.

Skipping the restart is why an edited Skin.xml can appear to do nothing.

Silent deployment across machines

setup.exe /silent

Add AutoRun_off, RunProgramSettings_off or RunProgram_off to suppress default behaviour, then push your prepared Config.ini to %AppData%\Volume2 for each user. There are no _on switches — those behaviours are the default.

Adjust monitor brightness from the keyboard

Add Brightness+ and Brightness- hotkeys. This is useful on desktops whose monitors keep brightness behind hardware buttons. It changes the monitor's real brightness, not a software overlay.

Turn off update notifications

System tab → disable Notify about new version.

Before reporting a bug

Test the current GitHub build first. Store and Steam builds intentionally lag behind, so the problem may already be fixed in a newer release.

Portable builds: the one rule

Config.ini is not in the archive. Update by overwriting files in place and it survives. Delete the folder and unpack fresh and it is gone — back it up first.