Cursor hover over application issue

etsyorprm · 09 Mar 2016

Hello friends, I recently switched to Windows 10 and it's been great so far but I've been having problems with one specific thing.

I use VLC to listen to podcasts and I leave the VLC window behind all the rest of my windows since I don't need to touch it for any reason until the podcast ends. Sometimes though I need to change its volume if its get too loud or quiet, so what I used to do in Windows 8 was simply select VLC with alt-tab and raise its volume with the mouse wheel, without needing to ever move the cursor.

In Windows 10 however, I can't do this anymore: if I select VLC and try to change its volume with the mouse wheel, nothing happens; for anything to happen, I have to manually move the cursor over the VLC window, and only then I can change its volume. This wouldn't be a problem but since the VLC window is buried beneath all the rest of my windows, I have to minimize everything every time I want to change its volume, making this very very annoying.

Does anyone know how I could possibly change this to back the way it was? It would be really REALLY appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!

PS: Apologies for the "generic" thread title, I didn't know how to accurately describe the issue in a single sentence.

Night Hawk · 09 Mar 2016

Hello etsyorprm Welcome to the Ten Forums!

When going to the taskbar to hover over the VLC icon and decide to click on the pop up thumbnail that will see the VLC window instantly placed on top of everything else unless you have something else open set to remain on top. You don't have to minimise anything else. The same goes for anything else including multiple browser windows, explorer windows, and any other programs.

The alternative to adjusting the volume level on VLC is the Windows volume control you have visible on the main taskbar that controls the volume level for all sound. Here I tend to leave most players set to about 90% and simply use the volume control on the sound card's own software or the volume knob on the keyboard I use here(AZIO gaming model) rather then trying to keep bouncing levels back and forth in Windows.

AndreyT · 09 Mar 2016

etsyorprm said:

...so what I used to do in Windows 8 was simply select VLC with alt-tab and raise its volume with the mouse wheel, without needing to ever move the cursor...

Can you provide more details on how exactly this worked? What did you do with Alt-Tab? Did you actually have to switch to VLC and then use mouse wheel? Or did you somehow manage to use Alt-Tab without causing a switch to VLC?

Night Hawk · 09 Mar 2016

With the main window open in plain view you simply run the cursor over the lower right hand corner and then simply spin the wheel! The graph for the volume level will then move either way representing the up or down direction. You don't have to click and drag the indicator like you would in many other players including WMP!

VLC also plays dvds a lot easier then other players like the free DVDFab Player 9 that shouldn't even have DVD in the name there since that one simply will not work for optical media! Tried the previous versions as well when looking for a WMP substitute for 10 now needed more then ever after the 7 laptop upgraded to 10 failed and was replaced by a new 10 model. You will notice that VLC is what you will find at the MS online store there since MS knows what works after stripping WMP down for 8!

etsyorprm · 10 Mar 2016

Night Hawk said:

When going to the taskbar to hover over the VLC icon and decide to click on the pop up thumbnail that will see the VLC window instantly placed on top of everything else unless you have something else open set to remain on top. You don't have to minimise anything else. The same goes for anything else including multiple browser windows, explorer windows, and any other programs.

The alternative to adjusting the volume level on VLC is the Windows volume control you have visible on the main taskbar that controls the volume level for all sound. Here I tend to leave most players set to about 90% and simply use the volume control on the sound card's own software or the volume knob on the keyboard I use here(AZIO gaming model) rather then trying to keep bouncing levels back and forth in Windows.

Hi thank you for your post! I understand that clicking on an icon pops up the window, but I run many other applications that are "Always On Top" (I'm not sure if there's a technical term for this) so even if I activate VLC by clicking on its icon, it stays hidden beneath the other windows. (Perhaps I should have clarified this in the main post - apologies for that)
Regarding your second suggestion, this would be great, but because of the fact that it reduces the volume of ALL the applications (not just VLC) it is not an ideal solution.

AndreyT said:

Can you provide more details on how exactly this worked? What did you do with Alt-Tab? Did you actually have to switch to VLC and then use mouse wheel? Or did you somehow manage to use Alt-Tab without causing a switch to VLC?

Hi! Thanks also for your post. I did switch to VLC, but as I said previously in this post, I either have windows on top of it (so I never see the window, despite being active) or I move it to outside of the monitor screen so it doesn't cover the rest of my applications when I bring it up.

I would like to clarify that this is not a VLC issue or an alt-tab issue. It is a simple change that Windows 10 makes, which changes how it handles user input: it prioritizes the window upon which the cursor is hovering, instead of the actually active window. So in this example, despite VLC being the active window, as it is not the window upon which my cursor is hovering, it is not affected by the mouse wheel scrolling (which would change its volume). I would like to know if it's possible to change this.

Night Hawk · 10 Mar 2016

Well if you are on pause or simply leaving the VLC app running without anything playing you would then simply adjust the volume for what is running. I doubt you would having 10 players all going at once and need 10 volume controls.

Here I will have several things going at once and pause one and adjust the main if I pause WMP to play a YouTube clip or some other embedded video. Of course I also am working with a dual monitor set up where the desktop is extended and no need for tabbed browsers. Not on the main build anyways while on VMs and the remote pc those will tend to see things tabbed. :)

As for VLC I mainly use that on a 10 laptop mostly for setting that up for someone else to be able to watch dvd movies since you can't see that done with WMP since 7! AIMP3 is an alternative music player while audio players are abundant. The alternate solution of course is to not have the other things set always on top or full screen or maximized where you can drag the corners on each to leave a portion of VLC showing in one corner of the screen. When running VMs or WMP here I don't have them set for the always on top but may be full screen with the VM running at the moment.