Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

bugtracer · 2009-12-16 20:30

Hi,

since in Vista the notification of low battery is shown only some seconds
on the lower right side of the screen, this message can be overseen
very easy.

Therefore I tested shutter with these settings:

Event
- Battery Low: Below 10%, Offline only

Action:
- Volume: Unmute master volume
- Play Sound: "C:\MyWaves\Battery is low.wav"
- Message: "Battery is low" for 999 secs (on top)

Unmuting however does not work, therefore I can't hear
the sound if my volume is muted. The message is shown
however. If I unmute by myself, I can hear the sound.

My OS is Vista Business, SP2 with all current updates.
and I'm using ShutterBeta.zip, 24 Nov 2009, (828 Kb).

My Audio-Controller is listed as
"SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio".

Could it be that unmuting does not work correctly yet?

Is it possible to add a function for maximizing volume?
That would be perfect.

Thank you in advance,

Roland

EDIT:

Ok, I found a solution which works for me:

I added two new actions after Volume unmute:
- "nircmdc.exe" mutesysvolume 0
- "nircmdc.exe" setsysvolume 65535

Using nircmd from nirsoft changing mute state and volume
level works fine.

Last edited by bugtracer (2009-12-16 22:06)

den4b · 2009-12-20 11:59

Thank you for reporting this problem.

It sound like my "Unmute" function is not working properly on Vista. Could you please try "Mute" action as well, just to check whether it works or not?

Unfortunately I don't have enought time right now to investigate this problem, but I will get back to it in couple of weeks time. I will let you know how it goes. In the mean time, I will simply advise replacing "Mute" action with that "nircmdc.exe" command that you have suggested.

If you discover more details regarding this issue, please post them here.

bugtracer · 2009-12-20 17:31

Hi,

I just tested the mute-function, however it is not working also.

Thank you that you'll take care about the problem, also I can live
with the workaround also for my part.

bugtracer · 2010-01-22 10:26

Hi,

in the meantime I found out how mute and unmute is working under Vista.

Actually I found an example code under Vista Core Audio API Master Volume Control (CodeProject) written in C#. With this help I wrote a small example application which does mute and unmute, save the current state in an inifile and change the global volume setting.

However, this code probably won't work under XP, that means if you think about using it, you need to check if shutter is currently running ander Vista.

The difference between XP and Vista is, that under XP an application can only change the global volume setting. The same code running under Vista however will only change the applications volume setting because each application
has its own settings. To change the global setting, it needs special code.

If you are interested in my example application let me know.

Bye bye

den4b · 2010-01-23 15:42

Thanks for the info!

It clearly showed which API must used for volume control in Vista (and future versions) and also pointed out the actual effect of the old and ugly way of controlling the volume, which is very strange in my opinion. Anyway, I will try incorporate this in the coming v3 release of Shutter.

Ray M @ CodeProject wrote:

Windows Vista features a completely new set of user-mode audio components that provide per application volume control. All legacy APIs such as the waveXxx and mixerXxx functions and DirectSound have been rebuilt on top of these new components so that without any code changes all 'old' applications support this new audio API. This is a great thing except when your application is reading or querying the master volume settings of the operating system because all of a sudden, you are no longer controling the master volume of the operating system but only of your own application.

bugtracer · 2010-01-23 17:44

Hi,

additionally an option that would help is to set the overall and application volume
in an plugin/ action because unmuting wouldn't help if the volume is set to nearly zero.
As I use it to notify myself that the battery is low it wouldn't help to unmute to a volume
level of nearly 0. Perhaps in addition to unmute you offer a volume level setting?

Bye bye,

Roland

den4b · 2010-01-26 00:32

I was going to add the volume control eventually. You have probably noticed that in the version 3 of Shutter I called that action "Volume", not "Mute".

By the way, I have some good news for you. I have been working on a solution to the Mute problem in Vista. I have developed a test application which allows you to modify volume and mute/unmute master volume, but it is not done in the same way as currently in Shutter. It has both methods, the old and the new one, so for Vista and future versions of Windows it will use IAudioEndpointVolume method.

So far I have tested it only on Windows XP. Can you test it on Vista/7, and possibly on Win 9x if you'll get a chance?

Here is the test app: VolumeTest.zip

bugtracer · 2010-01-26 21:38

Hi,

you can download the results of the test here: http://www.ortloffs.de/public/VolumeResult.zip

I could test Win98 only in a virtual machine. You'll find the error message in the zip file,
the application itself did still run after clicking ok, but it had no effect at all to the volume control.

Under Vista you'll find the result in the little movie, it had the old application-dependent behavior,
but it did not change the global setting as you can see.

With the sources from codeproject I wrote a little muter_vista-application which I enclosed in the
zipfile together with a little movie showing its behavior.

Sorry that I have no positive result...

den4b · 2013-06-06 17:46

For the reference, this issue has been fixed in Shutter v3.00 Beta 52.

Mute/UnMute now works in Windows Vista and later versions.

den4b Forum

#1 2009-12-16 20:30

Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#2 2009-12-20 11:59

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#3 2009-12-20 17:31

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#4 2010-01-22 10:26

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#5 2010-01-23 15:42

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#6 2010-01-23 17:44

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#7 2010-01-26 00:32

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#8 2010-01-26 21:38

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

#9 2013-06-06 17:46

Re: Mute/Unmute not working on Vista

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