Creating customized sounds in Win 95/98

Factual Questions
1

I need a bit ‘o help here.

I want to add Applications to the sound folder in the control panel. Make sense?

O.K… What I’m trying to do is add different WAVS to different tasks that are not currently listed in the sound folder in the control panel of my fathers home PC (166 running Win95).

I’m trying to add the Star Trek OS computer voice that says ‘working’ whenever the comp saves/loads files, dials the megabit, that kind of thing.

The best I’ve been able to find so far was this, (Not copyrighted, no prob there)

*1. Select Start, Run and enter regedit to open the Registry Editor.

  1. Navigate your way to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps key in the left pane. Expand it and you’ll see a list of all the applications that currently have sound events defined. The standard Windows system events are listed under the “.Default” key.

  2. Let’s say you want your machine to sound off when Notepad opens. By default, the Notepad text editor isn’t in the Sounds application list. So first you have to add it. To do so, select the Apps key, right-click, and choose New, Key. Name the new key Notepad. Now select the Notepad key, right-click it, and select New, Key. Name the new key Open.

  3. Close RegEdit and open the Control Panel’s Sounds applet. You’ll find a new entry in the event list for “Notepad, Open program.” Highlight this event, assign the sound you want to use, and click OK.*

The problem is this doesn’t work. Using the above Notepad as an example, when I follow the instructions, I now get the notepad option in the sound file and can add a sound to it, but it won’t play when I then open it.

As far as I can tell, the key seems to be missing something. The ‘what’ I don’t know.

Any ideas?

If so, thanks in advance.

2

I hope you get a better answer than this, because as far as I know, there is no way to force the OS to play a sound for a new event that wasn’t programmed to do it in the first place.

Did you check the registry entries for the other sound keys to see what they had that yours did not?

Aside from that, you might be out of luck…

3

I sure did, but, it didn’t reveal anything obvious to me.

For instance, if I expand the ‘Mailbeep’ key in the same place as described above, I get two folders- a .current folder and a .default folder.

The .current folder, if it’s already set for a sound, shows what sound I want played. If it has no sound selected, it says ‘Value not set’. O.K., simple enough.

The .default shows a ‘"’ thingie. I’m not quoting it, that’s exactly the way it looks. It doesn’t seem to direct to anything specific. Furthermore, when I look at the Notepad folder that I added myself, it looks like all the others that were already there, ie., it has the ‘"’ thing a ma bob sitting in it.

I don’t know what to make of it.

Thanks for the effort, though.

4

I’m bumping this thread because:

A- I’ve recently responded to some GQ threads around here and think my responses were helpfull, detailed, and well thought out. Hopefully I’ve earned some ‘credits’.

B- I’m anxious in getting some kind of answer to this. Even if it’s not possible, I’d still like to know. It won’t crush me if I can’t do it.

C- Regrettably, of all the days to start a techie thread, I pick Thanksgiving. The one day the techies who can answer this question are guaranteed not to be wasting time at work cruising around this board.

D- This thread sank to the bottom of page one within a matter of minutes of my posting it.

E- I don’t have any sock-puppets to come around and say, “Hey, that’s a good question. Hmm. I’d like to know that too!”

F- I’m a nice guy. Helping out nice guys is always prefereable to helping out assholes.

G- O.K., this hurts-- Please!

5

well, I haven’t done this, but the thing that seems to be missing is the location of the executable. The computer will not be smart enough to know that the “Notepad” key is supposed to work for “C:\windows
otepad.exe.” I’d imagine you’d have to add a value under the application key telling it the path. Unfortunately I don’t know what the syntax for that would be, but poke around a bit and look how other keys do it. Make sure you back your registry up too…

Jman

6

Geez louise, am I reading you right, you’ve been in there tinkering with the Registry? You scare me, you really do. My momma done tole me, “Child, never, ever tinker with the Registry.”

I’ve got Win95 and the way it works for me is, if it’s a .wav file, I can add it. If it’s not a .wav file, I look for a different sound. (Life’s too short to try to figure out how to convert a Star Trek “working” into a .wav file. Is that what you’re trying to do?)

The sound you want to use has to be saved on the hard drive somewhere, as a .wav file in a folder somewhere, before Win95 can access it.

For all you Win95 folks at home, this is what Chris is talking about.

Start.
Settings.
Control Panel–Sounds.

Did you know you don’t HAVE to listen to that retarded little “ta-da!” sound every time you shut down? I’ve got mine set on Jungle Sounds.

Be aware that Win95 sometimes has certain default sounds that it doesn’t want to change, and some programs (for us, it’s Broderbund’s KidPix) have sounds that they just have to use. If you’ve already given their sound to some other function, like “New Mail”, they sulk and crash.

7

Actually, DDG, you got that mixed up. I already have the ST ‘computer’ wav file. I got it a Wav.com or some such site.

What I want to do is add applications to the sound folder in the control panel that aren’t already there. For example, there isn’t a Notepad app option in there normaly. Well, I want one there. I found out how to add one there, just not how to get it to work.

I can get the sound to work just fine with any of the others that are already there, just not the ones that I’ve added.

8

Hmm. Had a bit of a ‘there’ problem in that there post.

9

Oh, okay, I see what you’re saying. You want to add noises in places where it never occurred to Microsoft that someone might want a noise. Well, you’re way beyond me, then. I have enough trouble just keeping up with Microsoft on an “as is” basis without trying to get creative.

Well, best of luck with it. If I hear an explosion coming from the Greater Minneapolis area, I’ll know that whatever you tried, didn’t work, and that somewhere in a secret hideout in the Pacific Northwest, Billy “Mad Dog” Gates is humming a strange little tune under his breath and filing another notch into his gun.

10

So if I’m following you, you have changed what appears in the “events” list on the “sounds” tab - you might mention how you did this, it’s not obvious - but can’t get the new assigned sound to play. Does it come up in preview? Have you edited, saved and selected the new scheme?

11

picmr-

I did it by following the steps explained in my first post. That is, I went into the registry, found the location for the apps that are listed in the sound ‘Tab’ in the Control Panel folder, and added the apps that weren’t listed there that I wanted a sound for.

I first tried it exactly as the example explains- I added a notepad option to the sound ‘Tab’, in the Registry, and assigned a sound file to it I wanted within the sound tab in Control Panels. Problem is, it didn’t work when I opened Notepad like the example explains. BTW I found that page here.

So I added Megabit to the app list, like it’s explained above, and associated a sound with it too and… nothing again. It wouldn’t fire either.

What got me wondering at this point was what a previous poster has mentioned. You would expect that the sound ‘Tab’ would want a execuable, or some such path to follow in that file (In the Registry), to make it work.

However, looking at the files that are already in there, the registry, Ie, Opening Windows, Closing Windows, Alert, etc., that show up in the sound tab, I cannot see any associations within that folder.

Instead, I see the ‘"’ thing withing the folder pointing knowwhere.

Sorry this might seem confusing, but it’s so easy I’m having a hard time explaining it.

So, to recap, I’m able to add applications to the sound tab file in Control Panels. I’m able to do that by following the instructions listed above which point you to the right area in the Registry that you can add/delete these keys. After I’ve added the key, exactly the way they explain it above, it will show up as a app that can have a sound associated with it but won’t play that sound.

I hope this helps and appreciate your effort. Thanks.

12

Hi,

I have no input, I am just jumping on this thread because I also want the answer to this nagging question. I have several applications at work that I would love to open with the sound of a lion roaring or perhaps a flatulent noise.

There must be a doper who knows how to do this.

13

Well, if you’ve got Win95, you go to the Control Panel, click on Sounds, and follow the instructions for substituting your “lion-roaring” or “fart noise” .wav files for Bill Gates’ choices. It can’t be that hard, if I can figure out how to do it.

If you don’t have Win95, or if you’re trying to be creative like CnoteChris, then sorry, I can’t help you. :frowning:

14

Sheesh, and I always thought you were the technical type,**ddg[/].

15

Well, I feel a bit like a hijacker here but: My problem is that the applications I utilize at work were not dreamed up by Bill Gates, these are tools that I use to monitor shipments and for accounting functions, they were written by a person not within the Microsoft family and therefore do not appear on my selections in the Control Panel/Sounds.

Any ideas?

16

Does this help?

"By now you should all realize that you can add sounds to quite a few system events. Those can be located in the Control Panel/ Sounds. To add sounds to other events you need to edit the registry.
[list=1]
[li]Open up the Registry Editor.[/li][li]Go to the following SubKey:[/li]HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps
[li]You will find two SubKeys .Default and Explorer.[/li][li]Right-Click on the SubKey APPS, choose NEW KEY.[/li][li]The new value should be the name of the application that you wish to create event sounds for.[/li][li]Right-Click on the SubKey you just created, and select NEW KEY.[/li][li]An example to get you started: Key: Open Then, create another SubKey called Close.[/li][li]Go to the Control Panel Sounds, and the Application Event SubKeys you just created will now appear in the list that is displayed in the Sounds tab.[/li][li]Add whatever sound files you wish for these events.[/li][li]The very next time that you Open and/or Close that particular application, the sounds will play.[/li][li]For each and every application on your system, you can add sounds to all these standard events:[/li]
Close
Open
G.P. Fault
RestoreDown
Maximize
RestoreUp
MenuCommand
SystemAsterisk
MenuPopup
SystemExclamation
Minimize
SystemQuestion
There may be other events possible, but that depends on the particular application events that are used in any given Windows application.
info from=WINDOWS reg edit site

17

I’m not bumping this, I’ve been away from the boards and just wanted to thank absoul.

Thanks, that put me on the right track.

18

No problem, let me know if you get it working!