Turn Off the Annoying Windows XP System Beeps
When you spend a lot of time in front of your computer, the annoying beeps start to drive you mad after a while. I really don't need to be told that I hit the wrong key anymore, so I've compiled a list of how to turn off all the system beeps in Windows XP.
One of the most irritating beeps happens when you use the Volume control… but there are other beeps, such as on error dialogs or when you hit the wrong key.
Disable Beep in Device Manager
Open up Device Manager by right-clicking on Computer and choosing Properties, then on the Hardware tab you'll find the button for Device Manager.
Select View \ Show hidden devices from the menu.
Find Non-Plug and Play Drivers in the list, and then right-click on "Beep" and disable it:
When it prompts you to reboot, select no, and then right-click again and choose Properties this time. On the Driver tab, change the Startup type to "Disabled" and then click the "Stop" button if you are able to.
This should disable the system beep speaker, but it probably won't change the volume control beep, so continue on.
Disabling Beep in Registry
Open up regedit.exe through the run box, and then navigate down to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound
Find the "Beep" key on the right-hand side and change the value to "no".
Disable Beep in Sounds Panel
Open up Control Panel and find the Sounds and Audio Devices panel, choose the Sounds tab and then find "Default Beep" in the list.
Change the sound drop-down on the bottom to "None" and then click Apply. This should disable the volume control beep.
You'll want to also change Critical Stop to "None" as well, and should probably also turn off some of the other items.
You can also use TweakUI to get rid of some of the beeps, but if you follow the items on this page you shouldn't need that.
The steps are;
1. Right-click on My Computer
2. On the Hardware tab, click on [Device Manager]
3. On the "View" menu, select "Show hidden devices"
4. Under "Non-Plug and Play Drivers", right-click "Beep"
5. Click "Disable"
6. Answer [Yes] when asked if you really want to disable it
7. Answer [No] when asked if you want to reboot
8. Right-click "Beep" again.
9. Click "Properties"
10. On the "Driver" tab, set the Startup type to Disabled
11. Click [Stop]
12. Click [OK]
13. Answer [No] when asked if you want to reboot
This is one of the first things I do when I have to rebuild a PC. I didn't know about the registry tweak though - that can come in handy for unattended installations. Thanks!
re: “Turn Off the Annoying Windows XP System Beeps”
I did all these things and my computer still beeps when a download completes. In the registry I even went back and tried this:
{default] REG_SZ {value not set} I changed this to 0
Beep REG_SZ no
ExtendedSounds REG_SZ yes I changed this to no
I am grateful that while trying this I noticed in the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties where to turn off the Windows startup and shutdown annoying sounds and that worked.
This is a sanity-saver!
I was using a database that was beeping at me twice for each data item (there are a couple of hundred of them to be processed), and I was slowly starting to become 'beep-happy' when my colleague sent me this link.
Pure, silent bliss!
Thanks sooooooo much!
Phew… thanks a lot. I was right about smashing my box to pieces
What a relief…
I followed every step twice but , my pc still beeps anoyingly
Which annoying beep does the disabling beeps in registry step get rid of?
Thanks for the help. I use mysql for school and every time I make a mistake in the syntax of a command, the beep for the error is louder on my laptop than any other computer beep I have heard elsewhere.
Following these instructions will disable ToggleKeys; the setting which sounds a beep whenever you hit the CAPSLOCK or NUMLOCK keys.
That was very helpful indeed thank you
you rock - great article!
God! You saved my life! You dunno how mad I used to get while I was in a library or stuff and I got these annoying scandalous beeps just because I mistyped my pwd!
Thank you a lot!
Thanks for the sanity !!!
thank you! I love you for this, I would hug and kiss you if you were here. I have been so angry about this for years. Our environment is so sound-polluted it's driving me mad. Now I can go on to the next task, to mute colleagues and their cell signals.
thanks very much- that beep noise was so loud it was driving me crazy.
thanks again.
Thanks a bunch! This post helped me solve that irritating problem. That beep was horrible when wearing ear phones, it seemed to beep at full system volume into the hears.
No beeping annoyance for every Windows pop-up! Bliss! Thanks!