Not wanting volume control from the PC side

The first time I played music via either Foobar or Window Media Player, I was surprised that the volume control actually controls the volume.  I would prefer the volume control is done strictly through my preamp.  It would be nice to have like a "pass-through" mode where the software does nothing to the sound.  Let's say you turn the volume all the way up on your PC, is it equivalent to something "pass-through".  I don't feel comfortable that the PC software does some processing to the sound before it got to my USB DAC.