Ole Morten Didriksen has dug out some API calls that enable audio volume control (https://gist.github.com/oledid). With this, it is trivial from PowerShell to mute, unmute, or set the audio volume:
#requires -Version 2.0 Add-Type -TypeDefinition @' using System.Runtime.InteropServices; [Guid("5CDF2C82-841E-4546-9722-0CF74078229A"), InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)] interface IAudioEndpointVolume { // f(), g(), ... are unused COM method slots. Define these if you care int f(); int g(); int h(); int i(); int SetMasterVolumeLevelScalar(float fLevel, System.Guid pguidEventContext); int j(); int GetMasterVolumeLevelScalar(out float pfLevel); int k(); int l(); int m(); int n(); int SetMute([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)] bool bMute, System.Guid pguidEventContext); int GetMute(out bool pbMute); } [Guid("D666063F-1587-4E43-81F1-B948E807363F"), InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)] interface IMMDevice { int Activate(ref System.Guid id, int clsCtx, int activationParams, out IAudioEndpointVolume aev); } [Guid("A95664D2-9614-4F35-A746-DE8DB63617E6"), InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)] interface IMMDeviceEnumerator { int f(); // Unused int GetDefaultAudioEndpoint(int dataFlow, int role, out IMMDevice endpoint); } [ComImport, Guid("BCDE0395-E52F-467C-8E3D-C4579291692E")] class MMDeviceEnumeratorComObject { } public class Audio { static IAudioEndpointVolume Vol() { var enumerator = new MMDeviceEnumeratorComObject() as IMMDeviceEnumerator; IMMDevice dev = null; Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(enumerator.GetDefaultAudioEndpoint(/*eRender*/ 0, /*eMultimedia*/ 1, out dev)); IAudioEndpointVolume epv = null; var epvid = typeof(IAudioEndpointVolume).GUID; Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(dev.Activate(ref epvid, /*CLSCTX_ALL*/ 23, 0, out epv)); return epv; } public static float Volume { get {float v = -1; Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Vol().GetMasterVolumeLevelScalar(out v)); return v;} set {Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Vol().SetMasterVolumeLevelScalar(value, System.Guid.Empty));} } public static bool Mute { get { bool mute; Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Vol().GetMute(out mute)); return mute; } set { Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(Vol().SetMute(value, System.Guid.Empty)); } } } '@ # turn audio off [Audio]::Mute = $true # turn audio on [Audio]::Mute = $false # get volumne [Audio]::Volume # set volume (between 0 and 1) [Audio]::Volume = 0.75