How to change Windows sounds

In this article, we will be covering how to change various sounds that play when certain events occur in Windows or in installed programs. Those events can be an action that you perform, such as logging on to your computer, or an action that your computer performs automatically, such as alerting you when you receive new e‑mail. We will learn how to change individual sounds for events or the whole sound scheme for your user account in Windows.

All settings related to sounds in Windows are located in the following Control Panel applet:
Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Sound
To open that applet, you need to open the Control panel. This way is universal and works in every Windows version:

  1. Press Win+R keys on your keyboard to open the "Run" dialog.
    Run Dialog
  2. Type control and press Enter.
    Control

Control Panel will appear on your screen:
Control Panel

Open the Control Panel\Hardware and Sound category and click the Sound icon. The following window will appear on the screen:
Sound Applet

Click the Sounds tab.
Sounds Tab

  • To change a sound scheme: In the Sound Scheme list, click the sound scheme that you want to use, and then click OK. Click the 'Test' button to listen to the sound. You can also double click on the event itself to play the sound.
  • To change one or more sounds: in the Program Events list, click the event that you want to assign a new sound for. Then, in the Sounds list, click the sound that you want to associate with the event, and then click OK. If the sound you want to use isn't listed, click Browse to locate it.
    To change more than one sound, follow the steps above, but click Apply after clicking each sound, until you've made all the changes you want. Then click OK to close the dialog.
    To get a sense of what a sound you choose is like, in the Program Events list, click different events, and then click Test to hear how each one sounds in that scheme.
  • To save a sound scheme: You might want to save your customized sound scheme so even if you change some sounds, you can easily restore the entire set of sounds you used earlier with 1-click. To save a sound scheme, click the 'Save As' button and type a name for the sound scheme.