How can I control the master volume in Windows?

"There is a good enough solution that does not require installing additional programs:

Click your start menu and type sndvol in the search box
Create a shortcut on your desktop for it (right-click -> Send to Desktop (create shortcut)
Right-click on the new shortcut and edit Properties
On the Shortcut tab, set the box “shortcut key” to your prefrence. For example: CTRL + ALT + V, and hit OK.

Now you can press your shortcut keys and the volume control box will popup. Then use the UP and DOWN arrows to change the volume, and ESC to close.

Recipe taken form this blog post."

"Just found open source software 3RVX which ""provides an on-screen display (OSD) for Windows systems. It supports skinnable volume and eject OSDs as well as a range of hotkey controls, tray notifications, and other cool features. Simulates the look and feel of the OS X volume overlay (different skins are available) and you can configure key combinations.""

Also available on GitHub"

"The best way I found for manipulating the system volume level on Windows without the need for installing additional software is to use VBScript in one of the following ways:

Toggle muted:

Set WshShell = CreateObject(""WScript.Shell"")
WshShell.SendKeys(chr(&hAD))

Increase volume level:

Set WshShell = CreateObject(""WScript.Shell"")
WshShell.SendKeys(chr(&hAF))

Decrease volume level:

Set WshShell = CreateObject(""WScript.Shell"")
WshShell.SendKeys(chr(&hAE))"

"You could use this AutoHotkey macro: Volume On-Screen-Display (OSD) -- by Rajat

The interesting part is here:

vol_WaveUp:
SoundSet, +%vol_Step%, Wave
Gosub, vol_ShowBars
return

vol_WaveDown:
SoundSet, -%vol_Step%, Wave
Gosub, vol_ShowBars
return

vol_MasterUp:
SoundSet, +%vol_Step%
Gosub, vol_ShowBars
return

vol_MasterDown:
SoundSet, -%vol_Step%
Gosub, vol_ShowBars
return

If you modify the script and remove the ""Gosub"", you can change the volume without the OSD bars."