5 Ways To Stop Windows Vista/XP/2003 From Beeping

Filed under: Tech Stuff — Written by Chrissy on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 @ 9:24 am

This came up twice in the past week at work so I decided to post it. Here's a few ways to disable the annoying beep in Windows. Works especially well to hush Terminal Services Beeping. I ran this on the clients but it may work for the server as well.

1. local machine: sc stop beep && sc config beep start= disabled
2. remote machine: sc \remoteMachine stop beep && sc \remoteMachine config beep start= disabled
3. requires reboot: Device Manager -> View -> Show Hidden Devices -> Non Plug and Play -> Beep -> Disable
4. requires reboot: net stop beep
5. use TweakUI: General > Settings -> Uncheck the Beep on Errors

Sources: tech-recipes, sonhaysytem.com and JSI FAQ.

17 Comments   -
  • Comment by Jeff | May 15, 2007 @ 5:29 am

    Thanks a million! I use a laptop to terminal into my Vista machine at my desk from anywhere I am on my work campus, and the beep was driving me bonkers!!!

  • Comment by Preston | May 21, 2007 @ 4:08 am

    sc stop beep && sc config beep start= disabled

    Did the trick thanks!

  • Comment by nash stone | May 21, 2007 @ 9:35 pm

    I have dell dimension 520 C. For no resons it keeps beeping. so i came in search of the same. I would try these tips. I f it works would surely let u & others know about it. Thanks

  • Comment by Sicarius | June 2, 2007 @ 6:49 pm

    sc config beep start= disabled

    worked for me. I love the silence. Thanks!

  • Comment by Adam | August 24, 2007 @ 12:27 am

    sc stop beep && sc config beep start= disabled

    That one worked for me!

    Thanks a bunch.

  • Pingback Graceful Exits » DO NOT BEEP! | August 29, 2007 @ 1:53 am

    [...] Beep is there, with its full-volume flava and rich, screeching aroma! Disable it and reboot, or do something more clever if you need [...]

  • Comment by Margit | September 13, 2007 @ 4:18 pm

    No 3 worked for me - thank you very much!!!!!!

  • Comment by sharvey | March 11, 2008 @ 8:09 am

    Thanks, worked great, no more annoying beep!!!

  • Comment by p-hizzle | April 6, 2008 @ 7:45 am

    net stop beep shut my pdsm4 2003 r2 server up. Thanks

  • Comment by Bob | April 23, 2008 @ 10:51 am

    #3 worked on my Vista laptop (HP 27xx), and it didn't require a reboot. It was particularly annoying when using an older version of ACDSee or the latest version of Microsoft Money. Thanks!

  • Comment by Koushik | June 16, 2008 @ 10:50 pm

    Thanks a LOT..
    I am using the headphones.
    This High Freq Noise (Beep) was driving me crazy.
    I could have lost my hearing capabilities!!!!.
    Thanks again.

  • Comment by zolo | September 21, 2008 @ 6:40 pm

    Thanks, I was searching for this. In XP I used to use widows power toys (I guess that's the name), and one of the first things I do after a windows installation, is disable this nonsense 98 style beep. It doesn't work under Vista though, so your solution was handy (#1). :)

  • Pingback MOSS 2007 Virtual Small Farm Walkthrough Part 15 - Installing Warm-up Scripts, Optimizing, and Tips and Tricks « Stuff I geek with | November 3, 2008 @ 12:28 am

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  • Comment by F Murray Rumpelstiltskin | February 11, 2009 @ 8:28 am

    #4 without a reboot. I would have rebooted a dozen times to stop that sound...

    Thank you for this post - I just installed some packages into Cygwin and Vista decided to play that friggin' beeping sound when I used cat to output html files.

  • Comment by Selvol | April 16, 2009 @ 7:48 pm

    The First command saved my ear.
    Thank you.

    Also you should mention how to run the command.
    Some people still don't use the "run" command or just
    don't know how.

    Xp
    Start menu \ run \ Paste the code here \ Enter

    Thank you

  • Comment by Dave Miyares | June 19, 2009 @ 10:11 pm

    Thank you! It's now 1am and the baby is FINALLY GETTING BACK TO SLEEP after I woke him up with a bad cut & paste into MySql! Ooofff...

  • Comment by Ric | June 22, 2009 @ 8:49 am

    Good work, thanks mate. I was all set to do it the classic old school method (ie: cut the fecking wires to the speaker).

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