A mechanism for automatically detecting and controlling active multimedia applications is provided. Software is installed on a computing device that detects a plurality of active multimedia sources, and then determines that one or more of the plurality of active multimedia sources accept remote control of one or more multimedia features. A software multimedia user interface, including graphically displayed interactive volume controls for the detected multimedia sources, is displayed and configured to enable a user to remotely control the respective audio levels of each detected multimedia program by graphic manipulation of respective interactive volume controls.