How to Adjust Individual App Volume in Windows 11 Volume Mixer

What the Volume Mixer actually controls

The Volume Mixer is a per-app volume control — it sits between your system volume and each app’s own internal volume setting. If Spotify’s in-app volume is at 50% and you drag its Volume Mixer slider down to 30%, you get roughly 15% of full loudness. The mixer sits on top of an app’s own volume control rather than replacing it.

In Windows 11, the Volume Mixer also lets you send different apps to different audio devices at the same time — for example, a game can play through your headset while Teams calls come out of your speakers, without changing any settings inside either app.

Open the Volume Mixer

There are two ways in: a quick one for everyday use, and a Settings page version that gives you a couple of extra options.

1. Right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar, on the right side near the clock. A small menu appears.

   

2. Select Open Volume mixer. The Settings app opens directly to System › Sound › Volume mixer, showing a slider for your main system volume at the top and a separate slider for every app that's currently producing sound, or that has produced sound recently in that session.

   

If you don't see Open Volume mixer in that right-click menu — some older or unmodified Windows 11 builds show a volume slider flyout instead — go the longer way: open Settings, click System, click Sound, then click Volume mixer under the Advanced section. This doesn't need administrator rights; any standard user account can get to it.

Adjust volume for individual apps

Once the Volume mixer page is open, each app listed has its own row with an icon, a mute speaker button, a volume slider, and a dropdown showing the output device.

1. Find the app you want to change in the list. Apps only appear here if they've played audio since you signed in — a browser tab that's been silent the whole session won't show up until it actually plays something.
2. Drag that app's slider left or right to lower or raise its volume. The change applies instantly — there's no "Apply" or "OK" button to click.
3. Click the speaker icon next to an app's slider to mute just that app, without touching your overall system volume or any other app's sound.

This is the quickest fix if one app — a notification sound, a browser ad, a game — is way louder than everything else on your PC, and you don't want to dig into that app's own audio settings to fix it.

Set a different output device per app

Windows 11's Volume mixer also lets you route individual apps to different speakers, headphones, or virtual audio devices, which is useful if you're streaming, recording, or just want notifications on one device and music on another.

1. Locate the device dropdown underneath the app's volume slider. It shows the name of whatever output device that app is currently using, such as your default speakers or a connected headset.
2. Click the dropdown and a list of every audio output device currently connected to your PC appears.

   

3. Select the device you want that specific app to use. Sound from that app switches to the new device immediately; every other app keeps playing through whatever device it was already using.

If a device you expect to see isn't in that list, check that it's actually plugged in and turned on, and that Windows has finished installing it — a device that's still showing as "Installing driver" in Settings › Bluetooth & devices won't show up in the mixer's dropdown yet.

Why an app might be missing from the mixer

An app only shows up once it's actively produced audio in the current session. If you open the mixer before launching the app, or right after the app finishes playing a short sound, it may not be listed yet — play something in the app first, then reopen the mixer.

Some games and professional audio software use exclusive mode, which means they take direct control of your audio hardware for faster sound processing. These apps bypass the normal Windows audio pipeline and won't show individual sliders in the mixer at all. If an app you know is making sound never appears, check its own audio or output settings for an "exclusive mode" or "bypass system mixer" option and turn it off, then try the mixer again.

Fix a slider that's greyed out or stuck

A greyed-out slider almost always means Windows thinks the app isn't currently producing sound, even if you believe it should be. Before assuming something's broken:

• Confirm the app is actually playing audio right now, not paused or muted inside its own interface.
• Check whether another app is holding the audio device in exclusive mode — only one app can do that at a time, and it can lock out the mixer for everything else until you close it.
• Update your audio driver if sliders are unresponsive across multiple apps, not just one. Open Device Manager, expand Sound, video and game controllers, right-click your audio device, and select Update driver. This step needs administrator rights on most PCs.

If the new Settings-based mixer is behaving oddly — sliders that don't move, apps that don't appear — the classic Volume Mixer still exists under the hood. Press Windows key + R, type sndvol, and press Enter. It opens the older-style mixer window, which is sometimes more reliable for troubleshooting even though it looks dated.

Reset or undo your changes

There's no single "reset to default" button in the Volume Mixer, but undoing a change is simple: drag the slider back up to where it was, or back to the far right for full volume. Volume levels you set in the mixer don't stick around after you close the app. When you reopen it, the slider resets to full volume, so you'll need to lower it again if you want it quieter. If you need a volume level to stick permanently, that has to be set inside the app itself rather than in the Volume mixer.

None of these changes need a restart to take effect, and none of them touch your overall system volume or Night light, Storage Sense, or any other unrelated Windows setting — the Volume Mixer only ever affects sound.

What to do next

Once you've got individual app volumes balanced the way you want, it's worth checking your default input and output devices under Settings › System › Sound if you regularly switch between speakers, a headset, and a monitor's built-in audio — that's where you set which device Windows uses by default before any per-app overrides kick in. If you're troubleshooting a specific app that's too loud even after lowering its mixer slider, check that app's own in-app volume or audio settings next, since the mixer can only turn sound down relative to what the app itself is already sending out.