Windows Game Bar Resetting Notification Volume

[unsecuredham]

Every time my game bar program restarts all the notification sounds like achievements and party chat joining/leaving for myself or others gets set to 100%. The program does not remember what I set it to in between resets of game bar or my Pc.
I have updated my audio drivers and turned off the apps exclusive control over my audio devices.
I have no issues with the party chats audio, I hear and speak to my friends with no issue. Its purely a notification issue.
I've found old forum posts but they are all incomplete as Microsoft support seems to always stop responding before a solution is fixed.
I'm open to a third party software which will limit the sound for game bar but everything I've found online does not actually have this feature

If someone has the answer or a solution for this problem then I would love to hear it

 

[ChatGPT]

Hi unsecuredham — what you’re describing usually happens when Game Bar spins up a “fresh” audio session (or routes the notification sound through System Sounds) and Windows ends up treating it like “new”, so the per‑app mixer value comes back at 100%.
Below are the two best approaches: first try to fix/persist it, and if that doesn’t stick, use a small automatic limiter that forces the volume back down whenever Game Bar restarts.

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1) First: identify which mixer slider is actually being reset​

1. Press Win + G to open Game Bar.
2. Trigger one of the loud sounds (achievement test, join/leave, etc..
3. Immediately open Settings → System → Sound → Volume mixer (Win11) or App volume and device preferences (Win10/11).

Look for which slider jumps / is too loud:

• Xbox Game Bar (often GameBar.exe)
• Game Bar background process (often GameBarFTServer.exe)
• System Sounds (very common for “notification-style” audio)

If it’s System Sounds, that’s good news: we can target it directly.

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2) Fix attempts (that sometimes make the volume “stick” again)​

A) Update Game Bar / Gaming Services from Microsoft Store​

Microsoft Store → Library → Get updates and make sure these are updated:

• Xbox Game Bar
• Gaming Services
• (Optionally) Xbox app

B) Repair / Reset Xbox Game Bar​

Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Xbox Game Bar → Advanced options

1. Click Repair
2. If it still resets: click Reset (this will wipe the app’s settings)

C) Make sure Windows isn’t “helpfully” changing volumes​

1. Open Control Panel → Sound → Communications
2. Set it to Do nothing

(Party chat itself is fine for you, but this setting can still affect “comms-like” audio behaviors on some systems.
If after all that it still pops back to 100%, the most reliable “real world” workaround is to enforce the mixer value automatically:

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3) Reliable workaround: automatically force Game Bar/System Sounds volume (free)​

Use NirCmd to set the per‑app volume at logon (and optionally on a repeating schedule).
NirCmd has a command specifically for this:
setappvolume [Process] [volume 0..1] (you can even target SystemSounds).

Step-by-step​

1. Download NirCmd (official NirSoft page).
2. Put nircmd.exe somewhere permanent, e.g. C:\Tools\NirCmd\nircmd.exe
3. Create a file: C:\Tools\SetGameBarVolume.cmd with this content (edit the numbers to taste):

[USER=35331]@echo[/USER] off
REM 0.15 = 15% volume
"C:\Tools\NirCmd\nircmd.exe" setappvolume GameBar.exe 0.15
"C:\Tools\NirCmd\nircmd.exe" setappvolume GameBarFTServer.exe 0.15
"C:\Tools\NirCmd\nircmd.exe" setappvolume SystemSounds 0.15

1. Open Task Scheduler → Create Task
   • Triggers
     • At log on
     • (Recommended) Add a second trigger: Daily → “Repeat task every: 1 minute” for “Duration: Indefinitely”
       This is what makes it recover even after Game Bar crashes/restarts later.
   • Actions
     • Start a program: cmd.exe
     • Add arguments: /c "C:\Tools\SetGameBarVolume.cmd"

That’s it—whenever Windows/Game Bar decides to reset it, your scheduled task will shove it back down.

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Quick questions (so I can tailor this to your exact case)​

1. Are you on Windows 10 or Windows 11 (and which version/build, roughly)?
2. In Volume mixer, does the loud sound show under Xbox Game Bar, GameBarFTServer, or System Sounds?
3. What’s your audio output device (USB headset, Bluetooth, HDMI/monitor, etc., and does it ever disconnect/reconnect?

If you tell me which slider it is, I can tell you exactly which line(s) to keep in the .cmd so you’re not adjusting unnecessary sessions.