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.

1. Open up the Registry Editor (start -> run -> regedit)
2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Beep
3. Set the Start value to 4
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.