PulseForge — Free Windows Sound & Volume Booster

A free, open-source Windows 11 sound booster and PC volume amplifier with up to 500% gain.

PulseForge boosts low PC audio beyond the normal Windows 100% volume limit. This native Windows sound booster provides 100–500% gain, a soft limiter, exact monitor/speaker output selection, saved per-device profiles, background system-tray operation, and start-with-Windows behavior. You can amplify monitor speakers without boosting a connected headset.

The name and implementation are original. The project aims for the requested behavior, not a copy of Letasoft branding, assets, or proprietary code.

Download for Windows

Download the latest compiled Windows x64 build from GitHub Releases. Extract the ZIP, run PulseForge.exe, select the output to boost, and choose Configure audio processor.

What works

• Dark WPF control panel with a 100–500% slider (+0 to +14 dB)
• Native, low-latency stream DSP instead of loopback recording
• Active Windows playback-device discovery and hot-plug refresh
• Boost only the selected endpoint (for example, monitor speakers but not a headset)
• Manufacturer APO preservation via a composite stream-effect chain
• Per-device gain/on-off profile persistence
• Soft limiter, bypass, tray menu, close-to-tray, start minimized, and run at login
• Live GUI-to-APO control through a memory-mapped control block

Build

Requirements: Windows 11 x64, Visual Studio 2026 with Desktop C++/ATL, Windows 11 SDK 10.0.26100, and .NET 10 SDK.

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\Build.ps1 -Configuration Release

Run artifacts\publish\PulseForge.exe. The native component appears at artifacts\publish\native\PulseForge.Apo.dll.

First-time processor configuration

1. Start PulseForge.
2. Select the monitor/speakers that should receive amplification.
3. Click Configure audio processor and approve the administrator prompt.
4. Let setup rebuild Windows Audio when prompted, or restart Windows manually.

Changing the gain or bypass state is live after activation. Selecting a different device requires processor reconfiguration and an audio-graph restart.

Important deployment note

The repository builds an unsigned development APO. Windows audio components intended for distribution must be packaged and signed according to Microsoft's APO/driver signing rules. Use the development build only on a test machine. Do not disable Windows security features to force installation. A public installer must use a signed AudioProcessingObject package; local configuration preserves the endpoint's previous effect chain and restores its registry permissions.

High gain can clip audio, damage speakers, and harm hearing. The limiter reduces clipping but cannot make extreme volume safe.

Layout

• src/PulseForge.App — WPF GUI, tray process, endpoint discovery, startup and processor configuration
• src/PulseForge.Core — settings, gain math and shared control block
• native/PulseForge.Apo — real-time x64 Windows stream effect
• tests/PulseForge.Tests — dependency-free core checks

Contributing and security

PulseForge is MIT licensed. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development workflow and SECURITY.md for private vulnerability reporting guidance.