How to turn On or Off Notification Sounds in Windows 11

Option 1Control Notification Sounds for All Apps Using Settings

You can turn notification sounds on or off for all your apps at once using the Windows 11 Settings. This is the quickest way to silence all alerts if you just want quiet.

1. Open Settings. You can do this by pressing the Windows key + I on your keyboard.
2. In ⚙️ the Settings window, click on System in the left-hand menu.
3. Then, click on Notifications on the right side.
4. Click on the Notifications option to expand its settings.
5. You will see a setting called Play notification sound. Turn this switch On to hear notification sounds, or Off to silence them for all apps.

You can now close ⚙️ the Settings window.

Option 2Control Notification Sounds for Specific Apps Using Settings

This method allows you to choose which individual apps can play notification sounds.

1. Open Settings by pressing Windows key + I.
2. Click on System in the left menu, and then click on Notifications on the right.
3. Scroll down to the list of apps that can send notifications. Click on the name of the app you want to adjust (for example, “Mail”).
4. Look for the setting Play a sound when a notification arrives. Turn this switch On to allow sounds for this app, or Off to disable them.

You can close Settings when you are done.

Option 3Control Notification Sounds for All Apps Using Registry Editor (Advanced)

1. Open Registry Editor. Type regedit.exe in the Windows 🔍 search bar and press Enter. You may need administrator permission to open this program.
2. Navigate to the following location in the Registry Editor’s left pane:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings

To Turn Off Notification Sounds for All Apps:

Create or modify a DWORD (32-bit) Value named NOC_GLOBAL_SETTING_ALLOW_NOTIFICATION_SOUND and set its value to 0.

To Turn On Notification Sounds for All Apps:

This is the default setting. To ensure sounds are on, you can delete the registry setting NOC_GLOBAL_SETTING_ALLOW_NOTIFICATION_SOUND.

Option 4Control Notification Sounds for Specific Apps Using Registry Editor (Advanced)

Advanced users can use the Windows Registry Editor to turn notification sounds on or off for individual apps in Windows 11. This gives you fine-grained control over which specific programs can alert you with sound.

1. Open Registry Editor. Type regedit.exe in the Windows 🔍 search bar and press Enter. You may need administrator permission to open this program.
2. Navigate to the following location in the Registry Editor’s left pane:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings

3. Under the Settings key, find and click on the specific app’s key you want to adjust. The names can look complex, like Microsoft.YourPhone_8wekyb3d8bbwe!YourPhoneMessages.

To Turn On Play Sound for Notifications from an App:

1. In the right pane of the app’s key, look for a value named SoundFile.
2. If SoundFile exists, 🖱️ right-click on it and select Delete.
3. If SoundFile does not exist, it means sounds are already enabled for this app.
4. Click Yes to confirm if prompted.

To Turn Off Play Sound for Notifications from an App:

1. In the right pane of the app’s key, look for a value named SoundFile.
2. If SoundFile does not exist, right-click in an empty space in the right pane, select New, then select String Value. Type SoundFile as the name and press Enter.
3. Double-click on the SoundFile value to edit it.
4. Leave the Value data field completely empty (blank).
5. Click OK.

To turn off notification sounds for a specific app using the Registry Editor, find its entry and change the ‘SoundFile’ value. Setting this value to be blank will stop the app from playing any notification sounds.

Summary

You can manage notification sounds in Windows 11 through ⚙️ the Settings app for a user-friendly experience. For more advanced control or to manage settings for all apps at once, you can use the Registry Editor, but proceed with caution.