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

calendar May 1, 2007  · Updated: November 1, 2025 · 2 min read  ·
Share on: linkedin bluesky copy

This issue came up twice in the past week at work, so I decided to post the solutions. Here are a few ways to disable the annoying system beep in older versions of Windows. This works especially well to hush Terminal Services beeping. I ran these commands on client machines, but they may work on the server as well.

Here are a few methods you can try:

1. Command Prompt (local machine)

You can stop the beep service and disable it from starting up again.

1sc stop beep && sc config beep start= disabled

2. Command Prompt (remote machine)

You can also execute this command against a remote machine.

1sc \\remoteMachine stop beep && sc \\remoteMachine config beep start= disabled

3. Device Manager (requires reboot)

You can disable the beep device directly in the Device Manager.

  1. Open Device Manager.
  2. Go to View -> Show Hidden Devices.
  3. Expand Non-Plug and Play Drivers.
  4. Right-click on Beep and select Disable.

4. Net Stop (may require reboot)

A simpler command, though it may not persist through a reboot.

1net stop beep

5. TweakUI

For Windows XP, the classic TweakUI utility provides a graphical way to do this. You can still find it on various software archives.

  1. In TweakUI, go to General > Settings.
  2. Uncheck Beep on errors.

You can download TweakUI from MajorGeeks.

Some of the original sources for this post are no longer available, but archived versions may exist.