How do I stop VLC from stealing my volume buttons

when I press the volume buttons on my laptop, usually the system volume is changed.

However, when I do this with VLC it "steals" the presses and adjusts it's own "volume" instead. The system volume is also changed.

I can't find any way to turn this off in VLC. Does anyone know?

Update:
Sorry, some more details I should have included originally:

• VLC VERSION: 1.1.4 (and a few previous releases, back to about 1.1.0 or so, I think)
• OS: Win Vista Pro 32
• HARDWARE: Dell 1720 laptop (the volume buttons are little buttons on the front of the unit, they may work something like "media" keyboard volume buttons)

Update:
The buttons seem to map to Ctrl+Alt+b and Ctrl+Alt+c (according to the shortcut key box in windows shortcut properties) but the VLC advanced preferences hotkeys screen doesn't list these as the keys it uses for volume.

I changed it so there are no volume hotkeys in VLC settings - no luck it still steals the presses and adjusts the volume.

Also, pressing Ctrl+Alt+b or c doesn't change my system volume, so who knows what windows or VLC are doing to recognise those volume buttons.

:(

Update:

This Bug was finally fixed in 1.1.8 - VLC no longer steals volume button presses by default.

Solution 1:

Known bug : Ticket #3828 (new defect) : QT4 sends processed hotkey events forward, opened 4 months ago :

There is a bug in VLC 1.1.0 QT4 interface that causes processed hotkey events to forwarded. So if volume up key from keyboard is pressed, VLC raises the volume, but it also sends same hotkey event forward and because of this Windows Mixer also raises volume.

Same applies to mute, so both VLC and Windows Mixers are muted. Right way would be that VLC eats all hotkey events it has processed and forwards only those, that it doesn't process.

The only solution is to add your voice to this bug and in the videolan forums, until it's fixed.
Or, as VLC is open source, get the sources and fix the bug, which should be simple enough.

We need more info, such as your operating system and what are the volume keys on your laptop, and what do they generate.

However, you can still try to go into VLC Preferences, Hotkeys section, click on Volume up(down), and try to set or Clear their local and global key definitions. It would be interesting to know what effect this has on the problem.

Solution 2:

Someone made a patch at http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=79258&start=20 - the patched DLL for 1.1.4 works great on my Win7 box.

Solution 3:

The extended "application keys" are not meant to be global "hotkeys" like Win+L etc. The focused window receives the keypress first and has a chance to process it, just like other normal keys. This is by design.

You can work around this issue by switching the keyboard focus away from VLC. Using the mouse, you can click another window or desktop / taskbar. Using the keyboard, you can either Alt+Tab, or if VLC is the only window, Win+B to focus the "system tray".