Personalization Change System Sounds in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change system sounds for your account in Windows 11.

A sound theme is a set of sounds applied to events in Windows and programs.

You can select an existing theme, or change the sound for individual events for Windows, File Explorer, and Windows Speech Recognition.

Reference:







1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on the Personalization on the left side, and click/tap on Themes on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Click/tap on Sounds at the top. (see screenshot below)

You can also open Run (Win+R), copy and paste rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl,,2 into Run, and click/tap on OK to directly open Sounds.

4 Select a Sound Scheme you want in the drop menu, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

Each sound scheme is saved as a subkey under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Names key in Registry Editor for the current user.

5 You can now close Settings if you like.





1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on the Personalization on the left side, and click/tap on Themes on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Click/tap on Sounds at the top. (see screenshot below)

You can also open Run (Win+R), copy and paste rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl,,2 into Run, and click/tap on OK to directly open Sounds.

4 Perform the following actions: (see screenshot below)

1. Under Program Events, select an event (ex: "Asterick") you want to change under Windows, File Explorer, or Windows Speech Recognition.
2. Select a .wav file you want to play for this event in the Sounds drop menu.

The Sounds drop menu lists .wav files in the C:\Windows\Media folder.

You can click/tap on Browse to navigate to and select a custom .wav file you want to play for this event.

5 Click/tap on Test if wanted to test play the sound to make sure it's what you want. (see screenshot below)


6 When finished changing sounds for program events, click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)


7 You can now close Settings if you like.





1 Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe).

2 Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)



3 Expand open either the .Default (Windows), Explorer (File Explorer), or sapisvr (Windows Speech Recognition) key for the events you want to change. (see screenshot above)

4 In the left pane under the .Default, Explorer, or sapisvr key, click/tap on the subkey (ex: "Notification.Mail" under ".Default") for the event you want to change the sound of. (see screenshot above)

5 In the left pane under the selected sound event (ex: "Notification.Mail"), select the .Current subkey, and double click/tap on the (Default) string value (REG_SZ) in the right pane to modify it. (see screenshot below)


6 Type in the full path of the .wav file you want applied to this event (ex: "Notification.Mail"), and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)


7 When finished changing sounds for program events, you can close Registry Editor if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink