Check if system sounds are ON or OFF

Question

I've a vb.net application which has a button; when I click the button it should display a message stating whether the system sounds are on or off.

How do I do it?

By System sounds I mean the sounds played by the system such as "Asterisk", "hand" etc. These sounds usually occur when a message box pops up. These sounds can be turned off or on in the volume mixer. I want my application to on the click of a button show a message "System sounds are ON" or "... OFF" as a result of system sounds beings turned on or off in the volume mixer.

Below image shows system sounds turned off in the volume mixer window.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52001368/how-to-check-if-the-system-audio-is-muted — Mary, Jun 04 '20 at 13:27
@J.ScottElblein I think it answers how to control the computer's audio and its not about controlling system sounds. — Somanna, Jun 04 '20 at 13:52
You can read from the registry to see if the current sound scheme is set to none. `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes` under the `(Default)` key. — J. Scott Elblein, Jun 04 '20 at 14:11
@J.ScottElblein The value of (Default) is ".Default" and this value doesn't change if mute or unmute the system sounds — Somanna, Jun 04 '20 at 14:16
Mute is different from Off. Mute is the computer audio, like the above link. — J. Scott Elblein, Jun 04 '20 at 14:49
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19678359/how-to-check-the-master-volume-is-muted-or-not — J. Scott Elblein, Jun 04 '20 at 14:54
@J.ScottElblein You are right. I actually meant on and off not unmute and mute. — Somanna, Jun 04 '20 at 15:10

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 04 '20 at 15:17

2

You can do this with the NuGet package AudioSwitcher.AudioApi.CoreAudio and the following code.

Imports AudioSwitcher.AudioApi.CoreAudio

Module Module1

    Sub Main()

        Dim dev As CoreAudioDevice = New CoreAudioController().DefaultPlaybackDevice

        If dev.IsMuted Then
            Console.WriteLine("Volume muted.")
        Else
            Console.WriteLine("Volume not muted.")
        End If

    End Sub

End Module

answered Jun 04 '20 at 15:17

Jim Hewitt

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I want to check if System Sounds are off and not the computer volume. I've edited the question for clarity. – Somanna Jun 04 '20 at 15:18
1

Well that was NOT the original question! – Jim Hewitt Jun 04 '20 at 15:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 04 '20 at 14:48

If you change the System sound scheme to "No Sounds" (meaning System sounds are all Off):

then the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes default key will show as .None; else, it'll show the name of the scheme. You can test is system sounds are all off bu checking for .None.

    If Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes", "", String.Empty).ToString = ".None" Then

        Debug.Print("System Sounds are Off")

    Else

        Debug.Print("System Sounds are On")

    End If

But I'm OFFing and ONing the system sounds from the volume mixer. Doing so doesn't change the registry value you've mentioned. — Somanna, Jun 04 '20 at 15:12

Check if system sounds are ON or OFF

2 Answers2