Location of volume mixer settings...?

Philip Goddard

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Location
Exeter, UK
I have an ongoing annoyance, which I've had through all Windows versions from XP or maybe Vista onwards, in that although I can individually set the volume level of each program that makes any sounds, all those volume settings are wiped out and reverted to the much unwanted default level every time the Realtek High Definition Audio driver is updated. So, I'm naturally wanting to backup the settings and then restore them each time they've got reverted to default.

So, could any nice person here tell me where those volume mixer settings are stored? -- Many thanks.
 

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    Windows 8.0 x64
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Ah, thank you indeed for that! I've just downloaded and started using SoundVolumeView, and it does appear to do what I wanted to do. I expect I'll keep to using that, as it simplifies the backing up and restoring of sound volume profiles, and allows easy changing of profile. It would still be nice to know where the basic settings are kept, but at least this little utility is a convenient workaround.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Nofan (Nofen) IcePipe A40-Z68
    CPU
    Intel Core i3 2125, nominal 3.30GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 610
    Sound Card
    Onboard sound
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GW2760S
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Crucial 512MB and 1Tb SSD
    Cooling
    Fanless, heat pipe technology
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural
    Mouse
    Cirque Smart Cat Glidepoint touchpad
    Internet Speed
    Commonly 39Mbps down, 19.5Mbps up (Plusnet fibre optic)
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    Pale Moon, sometimes Chrome or IE
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    Comodo Antivirus (free) (HIPS disabled)
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    A completely silent PC, with no fans.

    Other security software:
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Nir Sofer writes lots of small but very powerful and useful utilities. When I find something small I need, very often it's one of his. Lots of goodies for Windows on his site(I don't get any freebies since all his stuff is free anyway. I just like to see good programming.) :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
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    Touch pad
Sorry to say, I've found SoundVolumeView to be totally useless. The reason is, the appearance of programs in the list is generally ephemeral, so a profile saved at any point does NOT include settings for what is not listed at that moment, and thus cannot restore their settings. I suppose, if the program were properly thought out, when an existing profile is saved to update it, it would merge the update with the stored copy, rather than replacing it; that might be useful, but that is not what actually happens.

I thus still need to find just where the actual volume settings are stored, so that I can backup and restore the whole lot. I could not find any obvious relevant entries with keywords 'mixer' or 'volume' in the registry, and a search for those keywords in system configuration files (*.dat;*.ini;*.cfg;*.cnfg) did come up with a few that might have been relevant - three copies of ntuser.dat in different locations, and UsrClass.dat, but I couldn't open them to see what they contained because they were already being used by running processes. I don't know how the search module of FreeCommander XE (current build) managed to search in them - unless it is so sophisticated that it uses Volume Shadow Copy function, which I'd hardly have expected!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Nofan (Nofen) IcePipe A40-Z68
    CPU
    Intel Core i3 2125, nominal 3.30GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 610
    Sound Card
    Onboard sound
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GW2760S
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Crucial 512MB and 1Tb SSD
    Cooling
    Fanless, heat pipe technology
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural
    Mouse
    Cirque Smart Cat Glidepoint touchpad
    Internet Speed
    Commonly 39Mbps down, 19.5Mbps up (Plusnet fibre optic)
    Browser
    Pale Moon, sometimes Chrome or IE
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    Comodo Antivirus (free) (HIPS disabled)
    Other Info
    A completely silent PC, with no fans.

    Other security software:
    Windows Firewall Control
    GlassWire Free
    Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Home (Premium)
    HitmanPro Alert
    Spyshelter Premium
    WinPatrol
    AnVir Task Manager
If it's in the registry, that's like a vast undocumented government warehouse. Your best bet if you can't find it in search is to use Regshot as suggested. I don't know how you expect a utility to save properties of what is not running. Most articles about Registry Hacks are created by experimentation rather than documentation. Windows will be long gone before the Registry is officially documented.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Touch pad
Ah yes, well said, MilesAhead!

However, today has proved to be a 'Eureka!' one, in that I've now found it! - No, not by being a super registry sleuth, but by doing a more focused Google search, just for ""Windows 8" backup mixer settings". I thus found a forum thread on this very issue, which revealed that the repository of the mixer settings is in the registry, at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\LowRegistry\Audio\PolicyConfig\PropertyStore

So, with a bit of messing around I can go to that key in my registry editor, export that key as a .reg file and then use that to restore the settings.

However, that is a bit of messing around, so it would be really nice if there were a little utility out there that would carry out the backing up of that key without one having to load a registry editor and then go to that key, and also of course present the saved copy of the key for restoring, without one having to search for it - though I appreciate that once one has found the latter file all one needs to do is double-click it and okay the prompt that comes up.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Nofan (Nofen) IcePipe A40-Z68
    CPU
    Intel Core i3 2125, nominal 3.30GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 610
    Sound Card
    Onboard sound
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GW2760S
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Crucial 512MB and 1Tb SSD
    Cooling
    Fanless, heat pipe technology
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural
    Mouse
    Cirque Smart Cat Glidepoint touchpad
    Internet Speed
    Commonly 39Mbps down, 19.5Mbps up (Plusnet fibre optic)
    Browser
    Pale Moon, sometimes Chrome or IE
    Antivirus
    Comodo Antivirus (free) (HIPS disabled)
    Other Info
    A completely silent PC, with no fans.

    Other security software:
    Windows Firewall Control
    GlassWire Free
    Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Home (Premium)
    HitmanPro Alert
    Spyshelter Premium
    WinPatrol
    AnVir Task Manager
Check out AutoIt3, Autohotkey or VBScript. They all have functions to read and write registry keys. AutoIt3 and Autohotkey easily assigning a hotkey to code you write. You could make a hotkey to save and one to restore. AutoIt3 may have the easiest syntax for a novice. Autohotkey is a bit tougher but more powerful. VBScript has vast source code publicly available. If you search the archives you may find some already written.

There are other scripting languages for Windows such as Rexx, Python, Ruby, Perl etc.. but esp. for using a hothey AutoIt3 and AHK are likely easiest.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Touch pad
Oh, thank you again! I'm already an enthusiastic AHK user, but of course its capabilities are quite labyrinthine, so I wasn't aware that I could use it for that. Now I know, I'll set up the respective hotkey commands.

However, tests that I've just carried out throw a question mark over what exactly is in that registry key, because when I delete the contents, that wipes out some but not all mixer volume settings (i.e., reverting to default), but restoring the key contents did not restore the wiped-out settings. This looks just too confused for one to be able to do anything useful with that registry key. :confused:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Nofan (Nofen) IcePipe A40-Z68
    CPU
    Intel Core i3 2125, nominal 3.30GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 610
    Sound Card
    Onboard sound
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GW2760S
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Crucial 512MB and 1Tb SSD
    Cooling
    Fanless, heat pipe technology
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural
    Mouse
    Cirque Smart Cat Glidepoint touchpad
    Internet Speed
    Commonly 39Mbps down, 19.5Mbps up (Plusnet fibre optic)
    Browser
    Pale Moon, sometimes Chrome or IE
    Antivirus
    Comodo Antivirus (free) (HIPS disabled)
    Other Info
    A completely silent PC, with no fans.

    Other security software:
    Windows Firewall Control
    GlassWire Free
    Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Home (Premium)
    HitmanPro Alert
    Spyshelter Premium
    WinPatrol
    AnVir Task Manager
I know how you feel. Registry hacks are called "hacks" for a reason. :)
One trouble with Registry is it's kept in ram. Often you have to log out, then back in, to see the effect. That's why I did a little hack called UpdateEnv. You may download here: Miles Ahead Software

Sometimes it will flush the registry to disk without logging out. Not always though. "Worth a shot" type of expectation is appropriate. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Touch pad
Thank you again, MilesAhead! Actually before I came to your new post I'd experimented further, and found that I got a full restore of the registry key implemented if I exited all running programs for which I'd set a sound volume, then rebooted (okay, I expect just logging out would have sufficed). So, yes, it's clear that the remaining issue relates to the way that the registry-in-memory is or isn't flushed out - and with the interfering effect of affected programs actually running at the time. It's becoming more simple now that I know how to work round the potential problems.

I have also found a little utility called Registry Key Jumper, which not only directly enables one to jump to a 'favorite' registry key listed in the program, but actually to have the program make a shortcut for the key, so you just click the shortcut and the key opens straightaway in Regedit; I can then export the key. So, I haven't yet got a one-shot utility that would enable me to save the key at just one or two mouse clicks, but I am getting close. I now have a shortcut for the mixer settings key in my (Classic) Start Menu, and it works really nicely. I suppose the thing to do also is to make a shortcut for the saved key in whatever location I decide to keep it, and have that shortcut next to the one for the registry key itself, and then I would be very close indeed to the facility that I was wanting for saving and restoring my volume settings.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Nofan (Nofen) IcePipe A40-Z68
    CPU
    Intel Core i3 2125, nominal 3.30GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 610
    Sound Card
    Onboard sound
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ GW2760S
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Crucial 512MB and 1Tb SSD
    Cooling
    Fanless, heat pipe technology
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural
    Mouse
    Cirque Smart Cat Glidepoint touchpad
    Internet Speed
    Commonly 39Mbps down, 19.5Mbps up (Plusnet fibre optic)
    Browser
    Pale Moon, sometimes Chrome or IE
    Antivirus
    Comodo Antivirus (free) (HIPS disabled)
    Other Info
    A completely silent PC, with no fans.

    Other security software:
    Windows Firewall Control
    GlassWire Free
    Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Home (Premium)
    HitmanPro Alert
    Spyshelter Premium
    WinPatrol
    AnVir Task Manager
The jumper sounds interesting. I have been using RegJump from SysInternals. It opens regedit to the key passed on the command line. But it has no facility to create a shortcut(although one could put in in SendTo and just have a list of keys to pass in.)

Edit: this looks nice. RegJump command line is a bit old. It brought me to the wrong key at times, which is not good. Good find. :)
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Touch pad
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