One of the minor annoyances I’ve had for a while now with various Windows apps - is that they unneccesarily generate sounds.
For example - ActiveSync on Windows XP generates a ‘connected’ and ‘disconnected’ sound. I can disable the sounds in the Sounds control panel, but if I do - it generates a System Speaker Beep instead. A really loud beep too - especially, say, when you’re trying to (quietly) sync your PDA to at 1AM (or in a meeting).
On most PCs this is an easy fix - simply unplug the System Speaker from the motherboard. On a laptop, however, it’s not quite so simple (and I don’t want to violate the warranty just yet by opening it up and disconnecting/desoldering the offending bit).
So, I did a search, and low and behold - there’s a Registry setting to disable the System Beeps.
- Open up the Registry Editor (start -> run -> regedit)
- Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Beep
- Set the Start value to 4
- Reboot
Yay, no more beeps.
Disclaimer: If you break your PC by fiddling with the registry (highly likely if you make a habit of deleting or changing random keys for which you have no reason to be touching) - don’t blame me.
