Remote Volume Control With Wireless Mouse

Ever wanted to change your volume from afar? Sitting on the couch watching a film or listening to music on your computer only to decide the volume's too loud or too quiet? You're often too far away though to be able to easily see that tiny volume symbol in the icon bar. How frustrating!

This instructable shows you how you can remap your unused mouse buttons to be your slave. There are a few options, each one detailed in a different step.

Required:
- wireless mouse
- Windows XP/Vista
- AutoHotKey (powerful macro writer for Windows)

Step 1: Mouse Buttons Explained

The labelled picture below which shows which mouse buttons I'm referring to in the rest of this instructable. I will use:

- Mouse1 (Left mouse button)
- Mouse2 (Right mouse button)
- Mouse3 (Pressing down the scroll wheel)
- Mouse4 (Function button 1 - sometimes on the left side of the mouse)
- Mouse5 (Function button 2 - sometimes on the left side of the mouse)
- Scroll Wheel
- WheelLeft (some mice only)
- WheelRight (some mice only)

Step 2: Scroll + Middle Mouse Button

This version increases the volume when you hold down Mouse3 + scroll up and decreases the volume when you hold down Mouse3 + scroll down.

Code: (also in file below to download)

MButton & WheelDown::
Send {Volume_Down}
return

MButton & WheelUp::
Send {Volume_Up}
return

Pros:

- uses a really easy fluid motion. Hold down and scroll.
- uses only one finger on a really easy to find mouse button (even in the dark!)

Cons:

- you might want to turn it off when you go back to the computer. It stops the middle button working when opening a new tab with it in Firefox and other web browsers

Step 3: Mouse4 & Mouse5

This version increases the volume when you press Mouse5 and decreases the volume when you press Mouse4.

Code: (also in file below to download)

;XButton1 means Mouse4 in AutoHotKey (this is a comment)
XButton1::
Send {Volume_Down}
return

;XButton2 means Mouse4 in AutoHotKey
XButton2::
Send {Volume_Up}
return

Pros:

- uses really easy to use buttons
- these function buttons are very rarely used. This is my preferred script, I can leave it running and it won't ever interfere with my normal PC use.

Cons:

- for each notch of the volume you want to increase/decrease you must press it again

Improved Code:

;This compensates for the slowness of use by doubling the amount the volume increases/decreases for each press
XButton1::
Send {Volume_Down}{Volume_Down}
return

XButton2::
Send {Volume_Up}{Volume_Up}
return

Step 4: WheelLeft & WheelRight

This can only be done if you have Vista. Using the WheelLeft (tilting the mouse wheel left) and WheelRight you can increase and decrease the volume.

Code:

WheelLeft::
Send {Volume_Down}
return

WheelRight::
Send {Volume_Up}
return

Pros:

- These buttons are VERY rarely used. Even less so than the function buttons

Cons:

- Less mice have this functionality
- Only works on Vista, not supported by AutoHotKey on XP

Step 5: Compiling & Running

To use any of the above .ahk (AutoHotKey) scrips:

- download and install [http://AutoHotKey AutoHotKey]
- download the script(s) from the previous steps
- right click the .ahk script and click "compile". This creates an executable file that can be used on any machine with the operating system requirements even if it doesn't have AHK