Chapter 11: Setting Up Your Desktop

Changing the Desktop's Sound Effects

Most actions on the desktop (closing a window, for example) are accompanied by a sound effect. You can change these sounds all at once (or turn them off entirely) by choosing a new sound scheme, or you can change only a few sounds and leave the rest alone. A sound scheme is a coordinated set of sounds for all the desktop actions.

Make these choices from the Sounds tab of the Sounds And Audio Devices Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 11-11. Open this dialog box by clicking the Sounds And Audio Devices icon from the Sounds Speech And Audio Devices category on the Control Panel, and then click the Sounds tab. Choose a sound scheme from the Sound Scheme drop-down list (Windows XP comes with only two sound schemes: No Sounds and Windows Default).

Figure 11-11: Control sound effects from the Sounds And Audio Devices Properties dialog box.

You can also change sounds for individual events. To choose a new sound for a type of event, select the event from the Program Events list on the Sounds tab of the Sounds And Audio Devices Properties dialog box, and then select a sound from the Sounds drop-down list. For more information about associating sounds with Windows events, see "Choosing What Sounds Windows Makes" in Chapter 19.