Normally when you get a windows-based PC, it comes with a few generic sounds that are automatically assigned to certain events, such as new email coming in, or a notification. The sounds that come with your computer out of the box aren’t really to appealing in my opinion. Not only do you not have to use these sounds, but you can assign your own sounds, even to various system events. Make your pc come alive by making it sound like a dog bark whenever you start a program. Make your computer play a closing door sound whenever a program closes or whenever you close a program.

For this to work, you will need to have about 20 sound files in the .wav format.

Getting to Sounds

The quickest way to get to the Sound Applet is to go to the run box by pressing the WINDOWS key and R together.

Next, type the following: mmsys.cpl

Then press ENTER.

When you first land in this dialog box, you are in the Playback tab. We need to go to the Sounds tab. To do this using the keyboard, simply press CONTROL+TAB. You should only need to press this twice to reach the Sounds tab.

Once you reach this tab you should get the following text: “A sound theme is a set of sounds applied to events in Windows and programs.  You can select an existing scheme or save one you have modified.”.

Scheme

A sound scheme is a preset list of sounds tied to different events. You could have several schemes setup and switch between them as the mood strikes. You could have a Star Trek, Star wars, nature or other type of sound scheme setup.

The list of schemes is the first item that you are placed on here. You can arrow through the various schemes. If you tab you can save a scheme by activating the Save As button, or delete a scheme by activating the Delete button. If you continue to tab, you will reach the Program Events tree view, we’ll come back to that later. Next is a checkbox called Play Windows Startup sound. If you check this, windows will play a chime sound whenever the sign in screen appears. This gives you a good way to tell if you are ready to login to windows. You also have Ok and Cancel buttons.

Assigning Sounds to Program Events

First you want to make sure you are focused on the Program Events tree view. Once there, arrow down to an event. For this walkthrough, we will arrow down to Close Program.

If you have a sound already assigned, you can either tab to the Test button or press ALT+T. You will then be able to hear the sound that you have assigned to this event.

If you want to assign a sound, or change a sound that has been assigned, tab to the Browse button, or press ALT+B. The Browse button will take you into a standard open type dialog box. If you shift tab twice, you can arrow to a sound or press BACKSPACE to move back to the previous folder and arrow through the sounds there. Once you find the sound you want, press ENTER, or TAB to/click the Open button. You can now test the sound to be sure it’s the one you want to use for this event.

Now just repeat these steps for each event that you want to assign a sound to.

Save

Don’t forget to save your sound scheme! To do this press the Save As button and give your scheme a name, then press ENTER.

Have Fun!

🔊

I have spent way too much time playing with sounds on my computers. Now you can hopefully have just as much fun as I have had. One last thing. You cannot assign sounds for Login, Logoff, and Shutdown. Sadly, this functionality has not been enabled since the windows 7 days.

Now, how about you find a sound called Qapla?