# Windows volume control: Finer keyboard steps? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-volume-control-finer-keyboard-steps/686834 "2014-04-24T02:07:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-volume-control-finer-keyboard-steps/686834/1 "2014-04-24T02:07:20Z")
In Windows 8/8.1, when I push the volume up or down controls on my keyboard, it changes volume by 2%. 2% is too loud or too quiet, and I often need it to be a 1% difference but I can’t seem to do that. Is there a registry key or similar that changes this step interval? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-volume-control-finer-keyboard-steps/686834/2 "2014-04-24T12:30:56Z")
You must have very sensitive ears or very powerful speakers to be able to tell the difference. If it’s the latter, do you have a hardware volume control? I run a 5.1 speaker system with a desktop audio control, and keep the hardware set at about 40% volume so that the software control represents a reasonable control range. (I turn it up when I am doing audio work.) As nearly as I can tell, 50 steps is fixed in the OS. You might have to go to a more sophisticated sound card and driver to have finer control. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-volume-control-finer-keyboard-steps/686834/3 "2014-04-24T17:23:30Z")
I have a USB speaker bar and it goes straight from too quiet to too loud at night. It’s just a minor inconvenience, like so many other issues with windows. Thank you though. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-volume-control-finer-keyboard-steps/686834/4 "2014-04-24T17:46:50Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I have a USB speaker bar and it goes straight from too quiet to too loud at night. It’s just a minor inconvenience, like so many other issues with windows. Thank you though. It might be a fault of the speaker system itself. The volume control is meant to work directly with an audio subsystem, and going through a USB link might frag that somehow. You might see if there’s an updated driver for the speaker bar, or an optional one that works better than default OS-USB level control. But of course anything that doesn’t work must be Windows’ fault. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-volume-control-finer-keyboard-steps/686834/5 "2014-04-24T18:09:48Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > It might be a fault of the speaker system itself. The volume control is meant to work directly with an audio subsystem, and going through a USB link might frag that somehow. You might see if there’s an updated driver for the speaker bar, or an optional one that works better than default OS-USB level control. > > But of course anything that doesn’t work must be Windows’ fault. 🙂 The per-increment decibel increase is probably decided by the speaker system – hardware and drivers – but the steps between each increment (2%) is apparently hardcoded into the OS. That’s Microsoft 🙂 I’ll take a look at the speaker drivers to see if there are any updated drivers, but I doubt it since it just uses the standard USB audio libraries. Yeah, [nope](http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/laptop-speaker-z305?section=downloads&bit=&osid=14) ☹ And I blamed it on Microsoft because I never seemed to have this issue with Windows 7 (unless I just forgot), and, 8 has so many other minor annoyances that I’ve just had to learn to suck up – that’s a whole 'nother thread, one that’s been done to death. It is apparently possible to override the keyboard hotkey for volume control and attach a third-party program to control it, but that just seems overkill for this minor UI issue. If I drag the slider bar with my mouse and set it to 1%, it’s fine. Just tedious.