How to activate and use the new Windows 11 volume mixer

The volume controls of Windows 11, despite having improved a bit, it is not that they are spectacular and allow us great boasts, being far from third-party applications that some users use to make it more complete.

However, this may change soon, as Microsoft prepares a new volume mixer, very much in the vein of EarTrumpetr (3rd party software for Windows 11 volume section), so that works better and has features that are currently missing.

We have seen this mixer in the Windows 11 Insiders Build 25281so, if you are not from the Windows test program, it is impossible that it has reached you yet, although it surely will in the near future.

In any case, we will see what its new features are so that you know what is going to come to Windows in a short space of time.

new mixer

The very recently released Windows 11 Insider build 25281 has a new hidden volume mixer that finally lets us change app volume specific, in addition to switch between output devices and enable Additional functions.

One of the most interesting things is that, if we have, for example, a YouTube video in our favorite browser, we can increase the volume of what is playing only in the browser, that is, we will not have to raise the general volume, but rather there is one specific to whatever tool or application is currently using the volume.

Well it’s true that need extra keystroke to access the new volume slider, but at least you no longer have to go to Settings or use the Game Bar to make an app play a little louder.

We must know that this new mixer is something that has not been made official Microsoft, therefore, if we want to enable it, in addition to having to be. At a minimum, on Windows 11 Insiders build 25281, we also need to enable it with a hidden ID using the ViveTool app.

Enable the new volume mixer

We must be clear that enabling parts of the operating system using third-party software is always risky, therefore, it is convenient that we make a backup of important data before proceeding.

Remember that this will only work if you have the version of the OS Windows 11 Insiders Build 25281 or higher.

That being said, now all you have to do is do the following:

• we download ViveTool from GitHub and we unzip the files in a folder that we remember where it is.
• We push Win+X and we select Terminal (Admin).
• We change the windows terminal to the profile of the symbol of the system pressing Ctrl+Shift+2 or by clicking the down arrow button at the top of the window.

• We navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files with the CD command. If we put it directly on drive C in a folder that puts Vivetool, we must put cd c:vibetool
• Now we write: vivetool /enable /id:42106010
• We push Enter.
• We restart the computer.

Once booted we click on the volume indicator and press the button next to the slider to open the new mixer.

If we change our mind and we want to restore the original volume controlsall we have to do is repeat the previous steps and replace /enable with /disable in what we have written.

How you have seen having the new Windows 11 volume mixer is very simple, although it is a pity that it only works for those who have the Insider version. We hope that in a short time it will be operational for all users, since it represents a quantitative step forward.