3RVX: stylish, hotkey-enabled volume control
Description: 3RVX is a free program that offers volume control through hotkey and/or middle mouse wheel combinations. It also visually represents the volume levels and volume changes on-screen and in the program’s system tray icon.
Ever wished that you could raise/lower or mute your PC volume using hotkeys and/or the mouse wheel? With 3RVX you can do that and more. This program is similar to programs such as Volumouse, VolumeTouch, and MKN Volwheel; however 3RVX has a definite edge in both customizability and in it’s “coolness factor”. This program is not just designed to offer on-the-fly volume control but also to represent this through some nifty on-screen (skinnable) visual elements. More notes on this program below:
The hotkeys: are freely customizable; and, moreover you can add as many as you want that perform any single action (e.g. if you like you can have two sets of keyboard shortcuts plus, say, a keyboard/mousewheel combo to mute the volume).- The system tray icon: functions as a visual volume gauge that displays the current volume level. To avoid having multiple volume icons in the tray you might want to suppress the original Windows system tray volume icon (see “removing Windows’ volume icon” below.
On-screen volume control: a “volume gauge” will be displayed on-screen whenever you change the volume using 3RVX’s hotkeys. The image to the right shows 4 different versions of this in action (4 different skins). Note that this is customizable in terms of location on-screen and in terms of the location on-screen (including which monitor it should be displayed on).- Skins: 3RVX’s visual elements (the system tray icon, the pop-up volume gauge, and the volume control slider) are all customizable.The program includes seven visual styles to choose from (with the option to download and/or create more).
Removing Windows’ volume icon: go to control panel then click on sound and audio devices. In the “Volume” tab find and uncheck “place volume icon in the taskbar. See image to the right.- Memory consumption: around 4 megs in memory, which is simply excellent for a program like this (esp. as it requires .NET Framework, which sometimes causes unpredictably large memory usage - none of that here!)
The verdict: combine the sheer practical usefulness of hotkey-enabled volume control with sleek, skinnable visuals and controls and a small memory footprint and you get 3RVX. This program is a winner, and of the three similar freeware volume utilities mentioned above it is my clear favorite. Highly recommended.
Version Tested: 2.2 b
Compatibility: WinAll; no info on Vista. Requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Go to the developer’s home page to download the latest version (approx 2.04 megs).
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Looks good!
I’ll look into it if I run in to problems with volumouse or next time i format my HDD.
I found 3RVX.exe taking about 5.5-MB of RAM on my system, but the application also made the “.NET Runtime Optimization Service” service (mscorsvw.exe) run, and that took another 4 MB or so.
The inexplicably-named 3RVX doesn’t really do anything that Volumouse does (actually, it does less in terms of actual functionality), but its skins and the way the OSD fades out does make it look better than Volumouse’s basic, generic OSD.
All things considered, I’m keeping Volumouse.
Does not function very well using Vista and it totally but as previously stated, uses way to much Ram for such a simple app, thanks anyway but i will pass on this one.
HotkeyP
[...] Via Freeware Genius [...]
Wow, been waiting for this for a long time. I liked your previous Volume control post, but this one could be the goods.
Hi, I’m the author of the program. Just wanted to clear something up that was mentioned earlier — the .NET Runtime optimization service is a temporary service included with the .NET framework that compiles a native binary of the program for faster startup times. Once it has done its work, it goes away. You can read about it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/davidnotario/archive/2005/04/27/412838.aspx
Just wanted to clear that up so people don’t think I’m installing extra services on their PCs. Thanks a lot for the review
Not bad, but I prefer WheelsofVolume. All mouse control and 440k according to Task Manager.
[...] | Freeware Genius Descarga | 3RVX trackback ¿Recomendarías este post? Más noticias sobre: Multimedia, [...]
I didn’t say nor did I mean to imply that 3RVX installs services. It doesn’t. But what I saw, when I ran 3RVX, was that mscorsvw.exe started and kept running for several minutes. At the very least, it’s annoying, and it makes me wonder when–of indeed if–it would have ever “gone away”.
[...] | Freeware Genius Descarga | [...]
Wow, how imaginative. An exact duplicate of the Mac OS X volume function. All the goodness, but without the actual keyboard button. Even the icon is the exactly the same.
Lame, you guys. Buy a real mac, lol.
That was a thoroughly inane comment, Macboy. This is a Windows application that is skinnable. What you see is ONE single skin. Other skins have their own appearance, including icons.
4 Megs of footprint ? Sysinternals’s Process Explorer show Private Memory = 52 088 KBytes, and Virutal Size = 128 792 KB (on XP Pro).
(or is my computer screw).
Too bad, for I really love this app.