Pros
- Great low level volume control
- Retains useful high level volume control
- Doesn't try to do too much
Cons
- The mechanism for associating meta-keys (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) with the volume change/mute keys is goofy
- "Easing" is a bit of an odd name ("acceleration" is used for similar behavior with mouse movement, for example)
- No control panel configuration
Summary
I've been annoyed by the large steps by which volume changes in Windows when using the volume up/down buttons on my computers. This tool permits me to make those steps smaller, which means finer control. However, doing that means that, at higher volume levels, the changes are almost imperceptible. For that, I adjusted the "Easing" control to its maximum. Now, I can finely adjust the volume at low levels and get useful changes at higher levels. Perfect!
The app is the configuration interface. In normal operation, EVC is hidden. While there's no mention of it, EVC installs itself in the Windows registry to automatically start each time you boot your computer. If you remove that registry entry, EVC doesn't add it again, so it may be the installer that does it. (You can run the app with /hide to make it run without seeing it on the screen, so you can put it in your Startup folder or run it from a tool like Startup Delayer.)
I've only tried it on Windows XP so far.
Updated on Jun 2, 2011
I called the means of setting the mute and volume up/down keys "goofy" previously. It could be made so much easier by simply allowing the user to press the desired key combination. As it is, for each operation, there's a drop down list box of modifiers (Ctrl, Alt, ...) and a drop down list box with far too many items representing the available keys. Many key names are easy enough to understand, like "F3," "U," and "VolumeUp," but many others have non-intuitive names like "D5," "Oem1," and "OemOpenBrackets." If you're thinking that "Oem1" represents the numeric keypad "1" key, think again. There's also "NumPad1." As for "OemOpenBrackets," I'm stumped. "Brackets" can refer to parentheses, curly braces, and square brackets, to use the names with which I'm familiar, and I have no idea to what the "Oem" prefix refers.
Updated on Jul 25, 2011
Tried on Windows 7. Whenever I press a volume button the application fails with a .NET exception. I hope there's a fix!
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