Windows 7: Life Without the Volume Control

I try to keep a minimal Windows 7 desktop. One of the desktop elements I can now live without is the Volume Control icon which sits in the Notification area of the Taskbar. The only operations I need it for is to increase or decrease the volume. I assigned keyboard shortcuts for this task and my volume control is useless! 😊

Hiding the Volume Control

The Volume Control is a System Icon that can be either on or completely hidden. To hide the control, right-click on its tray icon and choose Properties. This displays the Turn system icons on or off dialog. Choose Volume Control, choose Off and press OK. The clock is now gone from the Taskbar.

Keyboard Shortcuts

A convenient way to control the volume using keyboard shortcuts is to use the awesome AutoHotKey (AHK) macro program. For example, the Win+Page Up and Win+Page Down keys can be assigned to increase or decrease the volume using these macros:

#PgUp::Send { Volume_Up   2 }
#PgDn::Send { Volume_Down 2 }

Here the volume increment is 2, you can assign a larger or smaller increment if you wish. (See the Superuser question here for more info.)

Checking Volume Control

For those rare times you need the Volume Control dialog, you can invoke this by pressing the Win key, typing Volume, choose Change System Volume and press Enter.