We recently had a customer who had inadvertently removed the system tray volume control access and wanted it back. It is really handy to have access to the volume control from there, so its understandable why the customer wanted it back. Fortunately, its just a matter of placing a check in the proper check box. At that time, unfortunately, I couldn't remember the location of the check box needed.
As with most tasks, the first thing to do is click the "Start" button on your "Task Bar". When the "Start Menu" appears click "Control Panel". Shown here is the "Category View" of the control panel.
You may have chosen to use the control panel's "Classic View", in which case your control panel won't resemble this one at all. In category view click "Sound, Speech and Audio Devices". If in "Classic View", you would click "Sound and Audio Devices", which by the way, takes us right where we want to go. The category view "Sound, Speech and Audio Devices takes us to another window where we click "Sound and Audio Devices". Whatever route you take, you want to wind up with the "Sound and Audio Devices Properties" dialog
Once the "Sound and Audio Properties" box is open, clicking in the check box indicated will place the volume icon in the taskbar. This particular view has the sound muted. Clearing the "Muted" check box will restore sound to the system. Be sure to click the "Apply" button at the bottom of this dialog after making changes. When you have finished exploring Sound properties clicking the "Ok" button will close the dialog. With the customers problem solved, lets explore the sound icons features then check out other sound properties and features.
The Sound Volume icon is by default installed in the taskbar. Hovering (holding the mouse pointer over an item without clicking) over this icon results in the information balloon shown in this screen shot.
A single left click on the sound icon results in the master volume control shown in the accompanying illustration. The slider control raises and/or lowers the overall sound volume. Place a check in the included check box and you turn off (mute) the entire system. If already muted you can click this check box to remove the check and restore sound.
Double clicking the sound icon will open the volume control, which will be covered shortly. A single right click on this icon opens a pop up menu, shown here, from which you can select the volume control or "Sound and Audio Devices Properties".
Sound and Audio Device Properties: The Volume Tab
Getting back to the Sound and Device Properties screen, the Device Volume section, which contains the check box control for the notification icon display discussed previously, also contains a master volume slider control. Below the check boxes is a button labeled "Advanced", which when clicked opens the volume control window.
The Speaker Settings section contains two buttons. One labeled Speaker Volume and the other labeled Advanced.
The "Speaker Volume" button opens a window that allows you to adjust the volume of your speakers separately, and acts as a balance control of sorts. You also have the option of moving these slider controls at the same time by checking the box at the bottom of this dialog.
The "Advanced" button opens a tabbed window labeled "Advanced Audio Properties" The "Speakers" tab is shown when this window opens. This screen provides for selecting the type of speaker system connected to your system.
The "Performance" tab gives access to slider adjustment controls for hardware acceleration and sampling rate quality. Generally, software adjusts these controls to the maximum during installation. Historically, some problems could be solved by adjusting hardware acceleration from Full to a lower setting on sound properties and display properties. This "quick fix" is no longer as useful as it once was.
Sound and Audio Device Properties: The Sounds Tab
The "Sounds" tab of the Sounds and Audio Properties window has, toward the top, a drop down list box where you can select a sound scheme if you have any installed. As you can see, default installations have the choice of "Windows Default" or "No Sounds". Sound schemes are generally installed with themes, which can be found in abundance on the Internet simply by searching for "Windows Themes" via your favorite search engine.
The bottom portion of the window contains a scrollable list box entitled "Program Events". Below that is a drop down list box entitled "Sounds", which is "dimmed" until you select a system event by clicking it in the list box, which highlights the event and activates the drop down list box revealing the sound now associated with the selected event. Events in the upper box without an icon do not have sounds associated with them. Changes are made to the selected event via the "Sounds" combo list box or with the "Browse" button. The button with the right arrow allows you to preview the sound before applying the selection. When you have completed associating sounds to system events, you can use the "Save As" button in the upper portion of the screen to place your choices in the sound scheme list. Don't forget to click "Apply" then "OK".
Sound and Audio Device Properties: The Audio Tab
The Audio Tab screen is divided into 3 sections and a check box at the bottom of the screen and outside the sections. Labeled "Use only default devices", the check box applies to all three sections.
The top section, Sound playback shown here, deals with sound payback. The combo list box allows you to choose the device to be used. This is usually the sound card installed on your system. Clicking the "Volume" button opens the same volume control screen you get from double left clicking the notification icon. This dialog provides a wide range of control and is shown below.
The "Advanced" button opens the same "Advanced Audio Properties" dialog available from speaker settings on the volume tab.
The Sound recording section located toward the center of the "Audio Tab" view has a device selector combo box like the Sound playback section. It also has a volume button. This is where this sections differ. The volume control screen that is opened by this button is modified from the one we viewed previously.
The number of controls is limited to inputs only. Notice also that the check boxes on this one are labeled "Select" instead of "Mute". That means these controls are normally off and only one can be selected limiting the number of inputs that will be recorded.
The bottom section of the "Audio Tab" is labeled MIDI playback. MIDI is the acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The "Default device" combo list box provides for the selection of a wave table synthesizer or the old standard MPU-401, which sends it's output to an external MIDI device. The buttons labeled "Volume" and "About" are generally only available when a wave table synthesizer has been selected. When available, the volume button opens the standard volume control window, which has been covered previously. The "About" button opens a credits/version screen much like the "About" selection on Help menus.
Sound and Audio Device Properties: The Voice Tab
The view provided by the Voice tab is divided into two sections, Voice playback and Voice recording. Toward the bottom, a button labeled "Test hardware" has been included. Clicking this button opens the Windows Sound Hardware Test Wizard.
The Voice playback section (not shown) has a combo list box for the selection of a playback device and two buttons. The Volume button opens the volume control screen, while the Advanced button opens the Advanced Audio Properties window. Both of these dialogs have previously been discussed. The Voice recording section, shown in the illustration, also has a combo box for device selection and two buttons. The Volume button in this section opens the Wave In volume control window seen previously. The Advanced button in this case is disabled.
Sound and Audio Device Properties: The Hardware Tab
The "Hardware Tab" of the Sound and Audio Devices Properties window is the first place you will want to look when having problems with sound. Each audio device on your system can be tested here by selecting it in the scrollable list box then clicking the "Troubleshooting" button or the "properties" button. When dealing with playback problems it is a good idea to double check speaker connections. The wiring on commonly available amplified speaker systems is in general a bit delicate and the mini plugs are easily removed.
Update 03/22/2008
During the attempt to update this article, it was decided to create a separate page covering the Vista volume control. This update material can be accessed via the "Next Page" button at the bottom of this page. We also noticed that once the original problem was solved the article evolved into a coverage of sound properties with a quick once over of the sound icon features. As a result a more in depth coverage of the sound icon was added to this article.
Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.
