The amount of things extremely simple that take months or years to get to Windows is sometimes a bit ridiculous, but for this occasion we are going to focus on a specific section: sound settings in Windows 10 and 11.
Control audio devices and turning the volume up and down in Windows is definitely a lot more complicated than it should beAnd it’s never all in one place. To solve all those headaches and more, there’s a wonder called EarTrumpet.
WINDOWS 10: 9 VERY USEFUL AND LITTLE KNOWN TRICKS
Granular sound controls easily accessible and in one place
If you only want to control the global volume in Windows and you only have one audio output, a key press is usually enough, but if you want more options, you have to jump through multiple menus and make a lot of absurd clicks.
Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 have their famous volume mixerbut it’s a bit Quite tucked away, especially in Windows 11, where if you want to do more than just turn the volume up or down you have to end up in Settings.
With EarTrumpet all that juggling is over, the app is extremely simple and powerful. Yes, everything it lets you do can be done in Windows without external tools, but this puts it all in one place, easily accessible and even lets you use keyboard shortcuts.
The app is wonderful, it’s free and open source: You can download it from the Microsoft Store, or you can install it with winget (winget install File-New-Project.EarTrumpet
) or with Chocolatey: choco install eartrumpet
.
Once installed, the app creates a new volume icon in your notification tray and from there you can easily access the volume of all your apps and quickly select between audio devices.
You can also raise and lower the volume with the mouse wheel just by hovering over the EarTrumpet icon
Another function of this icon is that it allows you to raise and lower the volume with the mouse wheel just by placing the pointer on the EarTrumpet icon, without having to click, something that in Windows 11 is just being tested in Insider versions.
If you right click on the icon, you will see more options, such as choosing an audio device, easily accessing the Windows audio controls, or opening the settings and the audio itself. eartrumpet volume mixer.
From the latter you can right click on each app that is running to select the default audio device you want each app to use. These are things that can be done from Windows Settings, but here they are given to you without having to do a treasure hunt.
EarTrumpet is the ideal audio panel that Windows has never had. Just a few days ago we told you how after barely ten years ago Microsoft had finally updated the volume indicator to be more consistent with the new design in Windows 11. It’s baby steps, and maybe one day we’ll have the sound picker and volume mixer we deserve in Windows, but in the meantime, at least we have EarTrumpet.