Volt

Some types of keyboards come with dedicated controls to adjust specific system functions, such as audio volume. There are particular cases in which controls aren’t at hand when running a fullscreen program. However, you can use third-party components like Volt to customize the way in which you adjust system volume.

Once the application is installed and launched it minimizes to the tray area, with a balloon tooltip which lets you know it’s there. It’s a good idea to pay a visit to the options menu first in order to at least view default methods of adjusting volume, or configure them to your own advantage.

There are three different methods of interaction, and all of them can be active at the same time. First, the tray icon can act as a trigger for actions like mute, bringing up the volume slider, or opening up the mixer panel, with slots to configure action when clicking once, twice, and thrice.

Second, the application supports hotkey commands, but only for a predefined set of actions like increasing and decreasing volume, as well as toggling mute. A dedicated field accepts any unused hotkey command, with the possibility to include the Win key as well.

The last method you can enable and configure is a combination of mouse and keyboard commands. The same adjustments as the second method are available, but not the same amount of liberty. Mouse button input is different for every action, and it needs to be held down while tapping the selected special key.

Bottom line is that Volt comes as a neat alternative to the default ways of adjusting system sound volume. The variety of commands and hotkeys you can use provides enough liberty to make it comfortably for any type of activity or location you want to adjust volume from.