Use a mouse to control the volume levels on your PC or laptop

Launch a web browser and click here to go to Nirsoft's website. When the website loads, scroll down to the Desktop Utilities section and click the Volumouse link. At the next page, scroll down the page to the download links to find and click the one labelled ‘self-install executable’. If the File Download Security Warning dialogue box appears, click Save and then choose a location for the downloaded file. Firefox users should select Save File to save the download to Firefox’s default download folder. Now locate and double-click the downloaded file, follow the installation wizard, accepting the defaults and at the end, click Finish.

To launch Volumouse, click Start followed by All Programs then Volumouse then click Volumouse. By default, the program controls the volume of whatever’s currently playing: to do this, hold down the Alt key and then roll the mouse wheel up or down. As you do, a volume slider appears on the screen, so you can control the level more easily.

Volumouse offers plenty of ways to fine-tune the way volume is controlled. To access these settings, click the Volumouse icon in the Notification Area. You could, for example, open the dropdown menu next to the second mouse rule (‘Left mouse button is down’) and change the setting so it controls the volume of the microphone, rather than the PC’s overall volume. Try clicking the More button that’s associated with each of the rules to change various other settings: we’d suggest increasing the size of the pop-up volume slider so it’s easier to see, as we’re doing here. Click OK when done.