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4 months ago
3
A lightweight WinUI 3 volume control application that provides persistent, easily accessible system volume control from the bottom left corner of your screen.
- Always-on-top volume control - Stays above all windows including taskbar
- System volume integration - Direct control of Windows master volume
- Mute toggle - Quick mute/unmute with visual feedback
- Draggable interface - Move the control anywhere on screen
- Minimal footprint - No taskbar presence, small memory usage
- Right-click context menu - Easy exit and run on startup option
- External sync - Automatically detects and syncs with volume changes made by other applications
- .NET 9.0
- Windows 10.0.19041.0 or higher
- Platforms: x64, x86, ARM64
# From WSL2
dotnet.exe build
# From Windows Command Prompt
dotnet build
# Run the application
dotnet run
src/
├── App.xaml(.cs) # Application entry point and WinUI 3 setup
├── MiniVolumeWindow.xaml(.cs) # Main UI window with volume slider and event handling
├── VolumeManager.cs # High-level volume control API with caching layer
├── AudioDeviceManager.cs # Low-level Windows Core Audio API COM interop wrapper
├── Win32WindowManager.cs # Native window positioning and topmost management
├── StartupManager.cs # Windows startup registry management
└── Logger.cs # Debug logging utility with file output
- MiniVolumeWindow owns a VolumeManager instance and disposes it on close
- VolumeManager caches volume/mute/endpoint state to avoid expensive COM calls
- Periodic refresh (1-second timer) syncs with external volume changes
- Immediate updates when user interacts for responsive UI
- Separation of concerns: UI → VolumeManager → AudioDeviceManager → COM APIs
- Windows Core Audio API (IAudioEndpointVolume) for direct system volume access
- Win32 API calls ensure window stays above taskbar and doesn't appear in task switcher
- Timer-based topmost enforcement overcomes Windows taskbar z-index changes
- Pointer events enable drag-to-move functionality
- Polling approach used since Windows audio change events are complex
- App starts at bottom-left
- App is initialized with current volume
- Slider changes system volume
- Mute button toggles system mute
- Window stays above taskbar
- Dragging moves window
- Right click to exit
- Always add comments explaining why code is implemented a particular way
- Test manually after changes to volume or window management code
- Use Debug.WriteLine/Error for troubleshooting COM/Win32 API issues
Build for distribution: Self-Contained (~80 MB includes .NET 9 and Windows App SKD)
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -p:PublishTrimmed=false -p:WindowsAppSDKSelfContained=true
Output will be in bin/Release/net9.0-windows10.0.19041.0/win-x64/publish/
Note: Trimming must be disabled to preserve COM interop functionality for Windows Audio API.
MIT
