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The Problem

I think it can best by described by this post I found:

The Windows master volume goes from 0 to 100, but for me it’s:

0 = muted

2 = suitable for use early in the morning or late at night

4 = daytime

6 = PARTY!

8 = the police will be coming to visit

10 = the army will be coming to visit

12 = the army will be afraid to come and visit

14 or more = I have no idea what would happen, I’m not crazy

A lot of online solutions talk about updating sound drivers and using their settings, but I've noticed this problem across multiple computers (I'm using Windows 10) using many different apps and with both headphones and speakers, so it seems to be a problem at the operating system level.

The Solution

I'd like to make the volume ranges for my computers map to something more reasonable to listen to so that I can have more fine-grained control over the volume. There does seem to be some third party software that people recommend, but it doesn't seem to address the maximum volume issue specifically.

Being able to adjust my volume level in increments of 1 instead of 2 could help and there are some ways to do that (which all seem hacky to me), but it wouldn't solve the problem of Windows sometimes defaulting to 100 when connecting to an audio device and blasting out my ears.

My home computer has a sound card driver with an EQ, so I could create a custom profile that sets all frequencies to be much quieter. This won't work for my work computer and also seems like a hacky and gross way to solve this.

What is the best way to make the 100 volume setting on Windows 10 much quieter?

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  • All I can say is… Windows does not actually control the output volume. That’s primarily your hardware (and maybe its drivers). I do not use any PC or laptop that is too loud or even just loud. // Did you perhaps enable some “enhancements” or spatial audio?
    – Daniel B
    Jan 3, 2023 at 21:33

1 Answer 1

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Windows only has volume 0-100 (percent) for settings. Everything else has more to do with your

  • software: it's worth looking at any EQ software, and make sure it's not boosting your output volume artificially (which is common)
  • drivers: You often can't do much about these, but they translate windows' 0-100 value into actual output levels
  • the physical speakers: larger desktop or monitor speakers usually have their own volume control, which may be maxed out.

That said, one way to manage high volume is via the mixer: Right-click the sound icon > Open volume mixer:

screenshot

  • Set the Device level 2 or 3 times higher than normal (I picked 50 here)
  • Set the Application level to a lower level for each application (I used 10)

Now, when you adjust the main windows audio, the actual output volume for the app only goes up by that percentage (1/5th of the main in this example). Unfortunately, you have to do this once for each application that makes sound, but it lets you use more of the windows volume bar.


I don't really understand your volume going up in increments of two... Try and left-click the sound icon to see the volume bar, and either click-and-drag or use the arrow keys to set the volume to any number?

screenshot2

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  • The increment thing is when you control volume using hardware keys. Also when using the scroll wheel on the dialog in your screenshot.
    – Daniel B
    Jan 3, 2023 at 21:28
  • @DanielB is correct but for me it's even a little bit worse because I have a hardware scroll wheel for volume, not keys, so I have to scroll very carefully to not blast out my eardrums Jan 4, 2023 at 15:19
  • As for this answer, (1) I don't have any EQ software making this worse, but perhaps it could make this better?, (2) I actually did know about the mixer, but don't want to have to set the volume for every app I ever open... Jan 4, 2023 at 15:21

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