VolumeTray

If you're tired with the standard Windows volume controller and you wish to use a more advanced application, VolumeTray could lend you a hand in this regard.
This program has been designed to serve as an alternative to the basic Windows utility, providing two different ways to control the volume: either by using the icon in the System Tray or through the customizable hotkeys.
Once you click the System Tray icon, you're allowed to adjust volume for all audio devices on your system, including master volume, wave, midi, line-in and others.
Besides the obvious volume controller, VolumeTray also provides a different slider to adjust balance, with a dedicated “Test Sound” at the bottom of the window to test the settings.
It's also recommended to have a look in the settings screen as well because this way you can configure the default action on double click Tray icon, sounds, hot keys and System Tray icon modes.
As you can see, VolumeTray is far from being a complicated software solution and because it's very important to interact in the right way with both beginners and those more experienced, the application also boasts skin support.
In addition, it's not at all a resource hog and works flawlessly on all Windows versions, keeping an icon in the System Tray to easily replace the standard Windows volume controller.
Overall, VolumeTray does its job very well and provides a more advanced solution to control the system volume. It runs on low resources and relies on intuitive options, all of which are addressed to all types of users.