How to Control the Volume of Individual Applications in Windows
Most of us will be playing all kinds of audio through our Windows PC speakers (or headphones), but you don’t necessarily want your background low-quality relaxing mixes to be at the same volume level as video calls or your notifications. sounds as loud as the podcasts you listen to.
This is where individual app volume control comes in handy. Windows comes right out of the box with built-in capabilities for creating your own volume mix on your desktop or laptop. There are also third-party tools you can turn to if the controls available in Windows aren’t quite what you need.
If you use macOS as well as Windows, you can also manage individual app volumes on Apple’s desktop operating system —we wrote about that here .
Controlling volume levels in Windows
When it comes to controlling the overall volume level in Windows, you have a few options: you can click the volume icon on the right side of the taskbar and adjust the slider that pops up, or if you have Function keys you can press F6 for volume down, F7 for increase the volume and F5 to mute the sound.
Many keyboards also have dedicated volume keys so you can use them. And of course, you have volume controls on your speakers, monitor, or headphones—those physical dials can sometimes be the easiest and fastest way to turn the volume down or up all at once.
When it comes to controlling app volume individually, you need to right-click the volume icon in the taskbar, then select Open Volume Mixer (you can also get to this from System > Sound in Settings). You’ll see volume sliders for each currently open app, which you can adjust as needed. Click Reset to discard changes and return to default levels.
You can even change which input and output device each program uses by clicking on the little arrows to the right of each application’s name. Perhaps you could play music through your headphones while leaving system notifications and other audio through the speakers built into your monitor.
If you’re itching to use the old Windows 10 volume mixer, at the time of writing it’s still present in Windows 11 – you might prefer it if you’ve just upgraded. Find Control Panel in the Start menu, launch it, then click Hardware and Sound and Adjust System Volume to open the sliders.
Controlling volume levels using third-party applications
Since Windows has its own built-in volume control options, there’s not much need for third-party tools, but a few are worth mentioning. One of them is EarTrumpet , which you can download and use for free: it simply gives you individual volume sliders for each running app.
After installing the utility, you can click its icon in the Notification Center (bottom right corner) to bring up the sliders. Right-click to access several options and settings: You can adjust the volume levels of all connected audio outputs, as well as customize keyboard shortcuts for EarTrumpet if you need them.
There is another free app called Sound Lock . It’s not exactly the same in terms of functionality as EarTrumpet and the built-in Windows options, but they are similar and you may want to consider installing it if you want more control over volume levels, especially when it comes to maximum volume. .
You can’t control the volume using the app, but you can control it depending on the channel (such as stereo or 5.1) and also depending on the output device. For example, if you don’t want external speakers to go above a certain volume, or you need your headphones to be quieter than your speakers, Sound Lock can help.
It’s also worth double-checking the software that came with your computer, monitor, headphones, or speakers (or is available for download if you don’t already have it installed). Quite often, especially with more expensive headphones, you will receive special utilities to control the audio mix on the output.