I behave with respect when I’m in a room with other people, in a train or on the street. This means that I have my mobile phone set to vibrate only, that I won’t answer it in crowded places, that I won’t use it to listen to music loudly (and without earbuds) and that I turn down the volume of my computer.
I remember that I once forgot to set my phone to vibrate only and that I felt totally embarrassed when I received a call in public. Others do not seem to share the same reservations that I do though. A recent trend is youngsters walking around with what I call the poor man’s car radio; A mobile phone playing loud music on the street.
You can use software on a computer to automatically adjust the volume. Volume Concierge is such a program. It can be used to schedule volume changes on a Windows system.
You could use it to automatically lower the volume to 20% in the evening which is nice if you have kids that go to bed early. Another option is to turn off the volume after the workday and turn it on again in the morning.
The program uses so called volume rules that the user can define. Each rule consists of a day (or all days or weekends), a starting time and a volume level.
You can add as many rules as you want and turn them on or off manually. The program can only be minimized into the Windows system tray. Despite having an option to schedule sound volume changes on the system it does not use the built-in Windows Task Scheduler to run those tasks. This is one of the shortcomings of the program. It would have been better if the program would only need to run on volume changing tasks.
Volume Concierge adds itself to the startup of the operating system. This can be disabled with a right-click on the system tray icon or other autostart editing applications. Removing the tool from autostart however removes all of its functionality from the system unless it is manually started by the user.
The program is free to use but asks you to register it on first run with an email address.
Windows users who want to try Volume Concierge can download the program from the official website.
Alternatives that I have covered before are Auto Mute which can be configured to automatically mute the operating system’s volume and the new Windows 7 volume control options.
Related Articles:
Volume Control During Startup [Windows]Configure Automatic Volume Adjustments Under Windows 7
Windows Vista Shrink Volume Problems
Skinnable Volume Controller 3RVX
Pulse, Change Windows Desktop Backgrounds Automatically
Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ using the icons below.
First two paragraphs are enough to keep me coming back here for YEARS!!! :-)
Great ;)
I also agree!
I just can´t handle it when I have 90 tabs open in Opera and all of the sudden some irritating music (or even worse, voice ads!) starts to play and I do not know which tab to close!
Well, I think that is the main reason why I try to keep my computer always muted. But when I do need to listen to something, what I´ve stated above usually happens anyway!
BTW Martin, check your googlemail please! :)
Cheers.
I somehow did not receive that email.
Just sent it again!
Would I would find useful is to simply NORMALIZE all sounds!
For example some youtube videos have to have the volume all the way up to hear anything, but the next video will make your ears explode if you keep that volume setting.
Most of the time, you have a comfortable volume that you want EVERYTHING to be at… why is that so difficult?