Windows 10: Change Event Sounds and Sound Scheme in Windows 10

How to: Change Event Sounds and Sound Scheme in Windows 10

How to Change Event Sounds and Sound Scheme in Windows 10


A sound theme is a set of sounds applied to events in Windows and apps.

You can have Windows play a sound when certain events occur on your PC. (An event can be an action that you perform, such as empting the Recycle Bin, or an action that Windows performs, such as notifying you when you receive new e‑mail.) Windows comes with several sound schemes (a collection of related sounds) for common events. Additionally, some desktop themes have their own sound schemes. You can also save changes you made to your sound theme as a new sound scheme.

This tutorial will show you how to change sounds and sound schemes that are played for events in Windows 10 for your user account.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Change, Save, or Delete Sound Scheme
• Option Two: To Change Sounds in Advanced Sound Settings
• Option Three: To Change Sounds in Registry Editor

OPTION ONE [/i] To Change, Save, or Delete Sound Scheme
1. Do step 2 (Control Panel) or step 3 (Settings) below for how you would like to open Sound settings.

2. Open the step 4 below.

3. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Personalization icon.
A) Click/tap on Themes on the left side, click/tap on Sounds on the right side. (see screenshot below)

B) Close Settings, and go to step 4 below.




4. Click/tap on the Sounds tab, and do step 5, step 6, or step 7 below for what you would like to do with your sound scheme.


5. To Select a Sound Scheme
A) Select a scheme you want in the Sound Scheme drop down menu, and click/tap on OK to apply. (see screenshot below)





6. To Save Current Sound Theme as a Sound Scheme
*note This will allow you to save changes you made to your current sound theme in Option Two or Option Three as a scheme to make it easier to select between saved schemes in step 5 above.
A) When you have finished making changes to your sounds using Option Two or Option Three in this tutorial, click/tap on Save as. (see screenshot below)



B) Type a name (ex: MySounds1) you want for the sound scheme, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



C) If a scheme with that name already exists, then click/tap on either Yes to replace the existing scheme, No to type in a new name, or Cancel.



D) When finished, click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below step 6A)

7. To Delete a Sound Scheme
A) Select a saved scheme (ex: MySounds1) you want to delete in the Sound Scheme drop down menu, and click/tap on Delete. (see screenshot below)



B) Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)



C) When finished, click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below step 7A)





OPTION TWO [/i] To Change Sounds in Advanced Sound Settings
1. Do step 2 (Control Panel) or step 3 (Settings) below for how you would like to open Sound settings.

2. Open the step 4 below.

3. Open Settings, and click/tap on the Personalization icon.
A) Click/tap on Themes on the left side, click/tap on Sounds on the right side. (see screenshot below)

B) Close Settings, and go to step 4 below.




4. Click/tap on the Sounds tab. Under Program Events, select an event that you want to change the sound of. (see screenshots below)



5. In the Sounds drop down menu, select a sound you want to apply to the event. (see screenshot below)

*note If the sound you want is not listed in the drop down menu, then click/tap on Browse, navigate to and select the .wav file you want, and click/tap on Open.







6. Click/tap on Test to preview the sound to make sure it is what you want. (see screenshot below)



7. Repeat step 4 above if you would like to change the sound for any other event.

8. When finished, click/tap on Apply to apply your changes. (see screenshot below step 6)

9. If you like, you can save your changes as a new sound scheme.





OPTION THREE [/i] To Change Sounds in Registry Editor
1. Type regedit in the search box (Windows+S) on your Start menu or taskbar, and press Enter to open Registry Editor.

2. In Registry Editor, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps




3. In the left pane, expand open the .Default (Windows sounds), Explorer (File Explorer sounds), and/or sapisvr (Windows Speech Recognition sounds) keys. (see screenshot above)

4. In the left pane under the .Default, Explorer, or sapisvr key, click/tap on the subkey (ex: Nofication.Mail under .Default) for the event you want to change the sound of. (see screenshot above)

5. In the left pane under the selected sound event (ex: Nofication.Mail), select the .Current subkey, and double click/tap on (Default) in the right pane. (see screenshot below)



6. Type in the full path of the unblocked .wav file you want to be applied to the event, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



7. Repeat step 4 above if you would like to change the sound for any other event.

8. When finished, you can close Registry Editor if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Enable or Disable Changing Event Sounds and Sound Scheme in Windows
• How to Play Sound when Lock Computer in Windows
• How to Play Sound when Unlock Computer in Windows
• How to Play Sound at Logoff (Sign-out) in Windows 10
• How to Play Sound at Logon (Sign-in) in Windows 10
• How to Play Sound at Shutdown in Windows 10
• How to Change Windows Startup Sound in Windows 10
• How to Change your Theme in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove 'Personalize (classic)' context menu in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Notification Sound from Senders in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Play Windows Startup Sound in Windows 10
• How to Change Mail app Notification Sound in Windows 10

:)

 

Windows defualt sounds missing Windows 10

Hello Vanessa,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft community.

I understand that you are not able change the entire set of sound scheme. I would like to inform you that you can personalize and create your own sound scheme and save it.

Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Personalize or Create a New Sound Scheme

Note: To create a new sound scheme, first you need to personalize the sounds of the present scheme. The best recommended way is to choose the
No Sounds options as you can add the required sounds because it itself will not have any.

• 
  Go to Sound tab.
  
• 
  Choose No Sound Option.
  
• 
  Go to the Program Events . Choose the event whose sound you want to change and then execute a click on the
  Browse button.
  
• 
  Select one sound for the selected event and click on the
  Open button.
  
• 
  Select the sound file you want. Among the got options, choose any one. You can test the sound by clicking on the play button.
  
  
• 
  Perform the stated above steps for every event and test it before applying the changes.
  

Note: Only
.wav format files are compatible to the sound schemes. In case, you wish to use .mp3 or .wma files, convert all these to the .wav files and then apply it.

Step 2: Save a Sound Scheme

Note: If you do not save the sound scheme that you have configured, Windows displays it with a text
“(modified)”. So you need to click on the
Save As button.

Follow the steps below to save the changes you did in the sound scheme.

• 
  A small window of Save As will pop up on the screen. Provide a name to the created sound scheme and click on the OK button.
  
• In the sound scheme section, you can see the freshly created scheme enlisted. You can select that sound scheme as your Windows present theme.

Hope the information helps. Reply with the status of your issue for further assistance.

 

Cannot see all Advanced Sound Settings - Windows 10

Hi Steve,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Appreciate your interest in using Windows 10.

I would like to suggest you to follow the steps below to add sound schemes to the list:

• Open Advanced Sound Settings.
• Select any event option under “Program Events” and click on “Browse”.
• Select the sound scheme from the saved path and click on “Open”.
• Click on “Save As” and provide a name for the scheme and click on “OK”.
• Click on “Apply” and then “OK” to save the changes.

After adding the sound schemes to the list, select the required sound scheme and click on “OK”.

Hope the information is helpful. Feel free to write us back for any further assistance with Windows, we’ll be glad to assist you.

 

Hey Peter,

I suppose that you could save the sound theme to have it listed. *Smile

Sounds - Change in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

In 7 it took a regedit batch file to enable other themes (i.e. Vista's Tinker) so not an easy task. I've asked over at 7 forums if the original author has any ideas.

 

..and guess what, I now have dozens of sound schemes to choose from. The reg file I ran from this thread over at 7 Forums: Possible To Import Vista Sound Scheme Into W7? - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

Hey Shawn,
I thought it may be a neat idea to 're-visit' some of the special theme sounds from W7.
The .wav files can be obtained from numerous sites on the web, use discretion.
Then fill up these folders in this location:





then you can 'Browse' for sounds when creating your sound scheme.
Just FYI. *Smile

 

Yeah, it would have been nice if Windows 10 came with them already.

 

Another great Tutorial! Thanks Shawn *Smile

 

Code: @echo off echo Sound Scheme: "no sound" reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\BootAnimation" /v "DisableStartupSound" /t REG_DWORD /d 0x1 /f echo. reg add "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes" /ve /d ".None" /f reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\.Default\.Current" /ve /f 2>nul reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\CriticalBatteryAlarm\.Current" /ve /f 2>nul reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\DeviceConnect\.Current" /ve /f 2>nul reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\DeviceDisconnect\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\DeviceFail\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\FaxBeep\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\LowBatteryAlarm\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\MailBeep\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\MessageNudge\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.Default\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.IM\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.Mail\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.Proximity\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.Reminder\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.SMS\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\ProximityConnection\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\SystemAsterisk\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\SystemExclamation\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\SystemHand\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\SystemNotification\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\WindowsUAC\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Explorer\FaxError\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Explorer\FaxLineRings\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Explorer\FaxSent\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\sapisvr\DisNumbersSound\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\sapisvr\HubOffSound\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\sapisvr\HubOnSound\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\sapisvr\HubSleepSound\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\sapisvr\MisrecoSound\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL reg delete "HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\sapisvr\PanelSound\.Current" /ve /f 2>NUL[/quote]

 

Shawn I know it's against the rules to repost something that was posted in the Forums somewhere else, but I believe this one is worth it, as it took me almost two days to figure it out, and I know(basically*Wink) what I'm doing.
So I hope this helps others that were in the same boat as I was:

Very special thanks goes out to @topgundcp



Note You will need to use or convert your sound file to .wav, to use as a Startup Sound

• First go to sounds and turn on Windows Startup sound!
• Then you need to take ownership of C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll. see: Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10
• Then open it with Resource Hacker: Resource Hacker
• Go down the tree to WAVE(yes the Windows Startup Sound is stored in imageres.dll and not in C:\Windows\Media like the rest of the default sounds. I learned that from a post by topgundcp here: No Startup or Shutdown Sound
• 
  
  
• And right click and change it,
• Now save a copy of this version of imageres.dll to desktop or downloads, wherever you favorite working space is.
• Then boot into Safe Mode,
• Cut & paste the original imageres.dll somewhere for safe keeping,
• Then paste the new version you created into the System32 folder.
• Reboot and hear your personalized Windows Startup

 

No problem Cliff.

How to Change Windows Startup Sound in Windows 10

*Thumbs