Windows Tools, Help & Guides

If your hearing isn’t what it used to be or you’re in a noisy environment, you may find you’re not hearing audible notifications when you’re using Windows. If, when a sound would normally notify you, you’d like to be visually notified, you can turn on visual cues alongside audio cues.

Enable Visual Cues for System Notifications

To enable visual cues alongside audible notifications:

1. Click the Start button, type ease, and click Ease of Access Center

2. Click Use text or visual alternatives for sounds

3. Check Turn on visual notifications for sounds (Sound Sentry), choose to flash the caption bar, active window, or desktop:

Note: You can also use text captions for spoken dialogue

Now, when you trigger an alert sound, your desktop (or window or caption bar) will flash:

To disable queues, simply uncheck the Turn on visual notifications for sounds (Sound Sentry) option and click OK.

Customize which Sounds/Visual Cues You Use

You may want to adjust sound settings to stop audio cues when you’re browsing through Windows Explorer for example (it can be annoying browsing folders with the screen constantly flashing.) To customize the sounds and visual cues used:

1. Click the Start button, type sound and click Change system sounds

2. On the Sounds tab, click the sound you want to disable and select (None)

3. Click OK to save changes

Free PC tips by email