Tray Levels

Built-in tools

Windows 11 Audio Control

See what a third-party mixer adds to Windows audio: per-app volume, device routing, hotkeys. First, though, it is worth knowing exactly what you already have.

A settings window listing applications, each row with a volume slider and an output device. VOLUME MIXER APP 1APP 2APP 3 SPEAKERSHEADSETSPEAKERS
The built-in mixer: a full settings page rather than a flyout

People install a third-party mixer because they hit a wall with the built-in one. Which wall depends on which version of Windows you are running, so start here.

Windows 11

Right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar and choose Open volume mixer. On Windows 11 that opens Settings → System → Sound → Volume mixer, where you get a slider for each app that is currently playing something, plus an output device picker per app. On recent builds there is also a keyboard shortcut: Win + Ctrl + V.

This is a real improvement over Windows 10, and for a lot of people it is enough. The friction is that it is a full Settings page: it takes over a window, it is several clicks deep, and it is slower to reach than a flyout that opens next to the clock.

Windows 10

Right-clicking the speaker icon gives you the legacy mixer, sndvol.exe, with vertical sliders in a separate window. Per-app device selection is somewhere else entirely: Settings → System → Sound → App volume and device preferences. Two different tools for two halves of the same job.

Beyond the Default Mixer

The gaps that survive on both versions:

  • Distance. Adjusting one app takes a right-click and a page load rather than a single click in the tray.
  • No level indication. When three apps are making noise, the built-in mixer will not tell you which one is loud right now. You are guessing.
  • Default device switching. Changing which device Windows uses by default is still a separate trip.
  • No custom shortcuts. You get the fixed system shortcuts and nothing else.
Worth checking first

If an app is missing from the mixer entirely, it is usually not producing audio at that moment, or it is routed through a device you are not looking at. Play something in the app and re-open the mixer before assuming anything is broken.

So what does the third-party option add?

Concretely: a single-click flyout that lists every active app, a level meter beside each slider, output-device switching per app in the same place, default-device control in the same place, and hotkeys you choose yourself. The rest of this site covers each of those in turn.