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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Jack Schofield

Mystery sounds in Windows XP

I often get annoyed when my XP computer beeps, whistles or hisses at me and I don't know why -- it is not obvious whether it is from my current application or something in the background (I've got quite a bit running). Is there anything like a sound event log which will let me know which application/process initiated the most recent sound events? I've looked around but not found anything... Colin Stratford

I don't know of anything either. However, go to Start, select Control Panel, and run the Sounds and Audio Devices applet. Click on the Sounds tab and the most common application sounds should be listed. If you select a sound (it has a loudspeaker icon), the Sounds box will tell you the filename (such as C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\English\virfound.wav). If you click on the right arrow between the Sound box and the Browse button, Windows will play the sound. If you play a few sounds, you should be able to relate these to the ones you're wondering about.

Does anyone have a better idea?

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