Turning off the cmd window beep sound

Question

Is there a way to essentially mute the Beeping function of the Windows command shell?

I'm working on a PowerShell script right now which ends up printing several lines of text to the screen. I'm working out a bug in the encoding logic. But every time I'm wrong my script will spew a bunch of random binary characters to the screen and eventually cause many annoying beeps.

The failure is quite obvious without the beeps :)

thanks for this question. It wouldn't dawn on me to ask... but it sure as hell is annoying. — , Apr 16 '09 at 15:08

score 80 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 21 '20 at 14:56

80

The Windows command line command net stop beep will turn off the beeping, and net start beep will turn on the beeping. Source

It should be noted that the instruction stops the beep globally on windows and not on just for within the windows command shell. Also, the service will run again when you reboot your computer.

@Ady's answer will suffice. But if you want to just disable it per instance, you can always put this method into a batch file (but it's so short you can just type it) and run it.

edited Sep 21 '20 at 14:56

Wasif

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answered Oct 31 '08 at 07:45

blizpasta

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nice, didn't realise it was that simple. – Oct 31 '08 at 07:57
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When I attempt `net stop beep`, I get the error `The Beep service could not be stopped.` (Windows 10). – anishpatel Nov 01 '16 at 21:39
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Run your cmd as Admin, or go directly to the services. – Sandburg Oct 08 '20 at 14:30
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Launched cmd Admin. Same problem as @anishpatel says – Fake Fish Jul 29 '22 at 09:54
`net stop beep` _will_ work, but it will shutting down the system KERNEL_DRIVER, which is not a service, and it cannot be restarted without rebooting the system (it seems to get stuck in `STOP_PENDING` because it never tells the service manager that it is now `STOPPED`). So if you use this command, it may work, but probably not the way you want it to. – pbarney Dec 12 '22 at 16:51

score 51 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 22 '11 at 17:23

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To control the Beep service startup from the command line, disable the service across reboots with:

C:\Windows\system32>sc config beep start= disabled
[SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

Re-enable with

C:\Windows\system32>sc config beep start= auto
[SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

Note the spacing on the sc config in the above examples, as it has specific requirements.

To do this from Powershell:

PS C:\Windows\System32> set-service beep -startuptype automatic
PS C:\Windows\System32> set-service beep -startuptype disabled

edited Feb 22 '11 at 17:23

Roger Lipscombe

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answered Nov 04 '08 at 05:30

Could you add better formatting? The [SC] is part of the output, not the input, as it looks in your post. – mark Aug 16 '09 at 05:49
This is the solution that actually works. – Akito Oct 07 '20 at 12:24

score 31 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 31 '08 at 07:37

Perform the following steps to disable your machine's system beep:

Right-click My Computer and select Manage.
Expand System Tools and select Device Manager.
From the View menu, select Show hidden devices.
Expand Non-Plug and Play Drivers.
Right-click Beep, and select Properties.
Select the Drivers tab.
Click Stop. You can also change the start-up type to Disabled so the beep service never starts.

Ref: http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/15508/how-do-i-stop-windows-2000-from-beeping.html

I do not have "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" on Windows 10. – Artem Russakovskii Nov 29 '17 at 22:48 — Artem Russakovskii, Nov 29 '17 at 22:48

score 14 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 19 '19 at 10:51

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There are two sounds you can adjust from Sound settings in Windows 10:

Critical Stop
Default Beep

I set both to none and I'm blessed with silence

answered Jul 19 '19 at 10:51

sReall

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Settings > Sound > Sound Control Panel > Sounds (Tab) > Search and se to "None" boths the events pointed by @sReall because "Default Beep" is the fallback setting of "Critical Beep" – Codemix Jun 01 '23 at 09:57

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 05 '20 at 08:50

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In my opinion you can achieve this without disabling your pc's system beep on new systems.

Right click the Speaker icon on the system tray
Click Open Volume Mixer
Mute Console Window Host (or the app you want to mute)

I've done this for WSL for Windows 10 and it worked well.

answered Apr 05 '20 at 08:50

Emre D.

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This is actually a solution for almost all (my) cases and users which do not have high or administrative rights. Even restricted users can just disable to beep sound and it preserve a reboot. No configuration changes are necessary, etc... – U880D Sep 11 '22 at 18:11

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 15 '17 at 05:24

4

Set-PSReadlineOption -BellStyle Visual

See https://msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/reference/5.1/PSReadline/Set-PSReadlineOption

answered Jan 15 '17 at 05:24

Scott Markwell

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This does not seem to work for me; it still makes the notification sound when I `gc` a file that includes a bell character. The page you linked says that option "specifies how PSReadLine responds to various error conditions or user prompts," which I believe is distinct from the handling of the bell character. – Ben N Jan 15 '17 at 21:22
Yes, this only effects the keyboard input on Powershell itself not any other programs. Additionally this setting is per session and is not saved. – Scott Markwell Jan 17 '17 at 06:49

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 29 '17 at 23:40

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Since the other solutions didn't work for me (for example, net stop beep got stuck like this forever: The service is starting or stopping. Please try again later.), the way I disabled the beep/ding in Cmder/ConEmu was by setting the sound for Critical Stop to none in system Sound settings.

No more dings!

answered Nov 29 '17 at 23:40

Artem Russakovskii

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Thank you! I did not want to get rid of it but make it a much more subtle sound. This helped me find which sound it was :) – ormuriauga May 13 '19 at 10:59

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 03 '20 at 14:45

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Windows 10 answer:

Navigate: Sound settings -> Related Settings (Sound Control Panel) -> Sounds
Then click on the sound (critical beep/default beep)
In "Sounds" dropdown scroll up to select "(None)" option.
Apply

answered Aug 03 '20 at 14:45

alex

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 28 '22 at 09:43

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Setting

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound\Beep

to no in the Registry has worked for me.

(reference)

answered Apr 28 '22 at 09:43

Jeronimo

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Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Apr 28 '22 at 09:58
This worked for me on Windows 11 to stop hearing a "beep" sound when using command "git config --list" in the Windows Command Prompt window (and paging down to the bottom of the list). I had previously set Critical Beep and Default Beep to "(none)" in the system sounds control panel, but that had no effect on the command prompt. The registry fix silenced the command prompt. – Alchemistmatt Dec 06 '22 at 03:48

Turning off the cmd window beep sound

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