Possibly useful Win-10 tip, undesired program sounds

I just installed a new event reminder program. As is common, this one
comes in a free or a paid version. Only this one also came with a
major annoyance in the "free" version - it makes an alarm sound every
few seconds whether it is running in the foreground or in the
background.

How to turn that off -
WinKey
type: mixer
A list of programs that use sounds is shown. When the annoying program
makes a sound, it should be added to that list, probably at the
bottom. Slide the mixer bar for that program to zero.

Surprisingly easy.


-dan z-

--
Someone who thinks logically provides
a nice contrast to the real world.
(Anonymous)

On Fri, 24 May 2019 09:06:01 -0400, slate_leeper wrote:

How to turn that off -
WinKey
type: mixer
A list of programs that use sounds is shown. When the annoying program
makes a sound, it should be added to that list, probably at the
bottom. Slide the mixer bar for that program to zero.

Wouldn't that mean that you wouldn't get alarm sounds at all from this app?

--
croy

slate_leeper wrote:

I just installed a new event reminder program. As is common, this one
comes in a free or a paid version. Only this one also came with a
major annoyance in the "free" version - it makes an alarm sound every
few seconds whether it is running in the foreground or in the
background.

That's a reminder to uninstall the program.

How to turn that off -
WinKey
type: mixer
A list of programs that use sounds is shown. When the annoying program
makes a sound, it should be added to that list, probably at the
bottom. Slide the mixer bar for that program to zero.

Or you can right-click on the system/notification tray speaker icon,
then click Open Volume Mixer.

Another possibility...

Right-click on the system/notification tray speaker icon, click
Sounds, look for its Program Events sounds, then program them to your
liking.

slate_leeper wrote:

I just installed a new event reminder program. As is common, this one
comes in a free or a paid version. Only this one also came with a
major annoyance in the "free" version - it makes an alarm sound every
few seconds whether it is running in the foreground or in the
background.

How to turn that off -
WinKey
type: mixer
A list of programs that use sounds is shown. When the annoying program
makes a sound, it should be added to that list, probably at the
bottom. Slide the mixer bar for that program to zero.

Surprisingly easy.

-dan z-

Why would it be making any sounds (reminders) unless you have defined
alarms within it to sound every few seconds? Sounds like it is broken.
As croy noted, how are you going to hear the sound for a reminder if
you've muted the app in mixer? If you just want to see a popup show up
as a reminder, there are apps that will do that, are totally freeware
(no payware version), and where you can configure them to be silent or
use a sound when they remind you.

I use Stickies (instead of the lesser featured Sticky Notes in Windows).
This is a note app. I can put notes on my screen, roll them up into
just showing their title bar (double-click on the title bar to
roll/unroll the note), they can have alarms, they can be invisible until
a later time (which may simply reappear or also sound an alarm). I like
the roll/unroll feature because that lets me stack all the notes
together in the top-right corner, or elsewhere, occupying little space
(but then other apps just paint atop of them, anyway), and I can simply
unroll which one I want to look at. Stickies is completely freeware.
No payware version (but you can donate). No crippling of features in a
freeware version to lure you to buy a payware version. No nuisances,
like making noises when you have not configured a note with an alarm. I
don't like the v9 skin provided with Stickies and instead use the older
v8 skin, but there are tons of skins to choose from with varying access
to features in each (some skins are more like a Word-style editor, some
are very basic). There are lots of apps like this designed or usable as
a reminder tool.

Why stick with an app that is rude in its freeware version? I forget
the last program that was rude like this. It would let me edit a
document but watermarked the printed copy, so it was too rude to keep.

The "event reminder program" might be something more than just a note or
reminder program, like something used for:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_management

Could be it's a calendaring program and, if so, and if involved with
event management, it might be a shared calendar where multiple users can
interact with the calender (but then there are lots of shared
calendering programs or services that aren't rude by making noises or
alerts when there are no event upon which to alert, like Google
Calender, Outlook.com Calender, and lots of local calendar apps that
sync with a service). Don't know what you are using or why you continue
using an app that appears broken. You've mentioned this unidentified
program twice (maybe more).

Since it is a secret program, I don't know how your hint helps someone
else since no one else will know what program you are talking about.
However, in general, your hint about using the mixer to mute sounds from
a particular app is useful; however, Windows has had separate volume
levels for apps since Windows Vista. I never bothered with Vista and
jumped from XP to 7, so it was 7 where I noticed the per-app volume
control.

https://www.howtogeek.com/244963/how...ps-in-windows/

On Fri, 24 May 2019 07:04:06 -0700, croy
wrote:

On Fri, 24 May 2019 09:06:01 -0400, slate_leeper wrote:

How to turn that off -
WinKey
type: mixer
A list of programs that use sounds is shown. When the annoying program
makes a sound, it should be added to that list, probably at the
bottom. Slide the mixer bar for that program to zero.

Wouldn't that mean that you wouldn't get alarm sounds at all from this app?


Yes. For me, that is not important. My post was to show that this can
probably be done for any program that you wish to silence.


--
Someone who thinks logically provides
a nice contrast to the real world.
(Anonymous)