Automatic Mute?

I always find myself either just turning on my laptop or resuming from sleep right after I get into class and my sound is on and there might be some kind of pop up making noise or my media player. Is there by any chance a way to have the computer automatically mute itself when it goes to sleep or shuts down so that when i turn it on it doesn't make any noise. I have disabled the windows startup sounds but I would still like to have the computer either automatically mute when it sleeps/shuts down or when it resumes. Im hoping that there may be a windows setting or just a program out there to do this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Will

 

just turn your volume to absolute minimum

 

I know I can do that, its just that I like to use my computer with the volume up at home and don't really think about muting it when im done. Then if I go to sleep and I wake up for class and my computer automatically went to hibernate, I don't want to have to turn it on and log in just to turn the volume down before I leave for class in the morning.

By the way im using Vista if that helps.

 

well mute your pc before you put it to sleep...

 

This is really the most sound suggestion. Pardon the bad pun.

I've thought about this for 30 seconds now. What comes to mind is creating a script that will automatically mute the computer upon startup. This script would run upon startup.

Limitations:
-Will only work if you perform a fresh boot in class.
-Must be high in the boot order list. Meaning the script must be one of the first processes to run during boot. Fat chance of this happening
-Because of the above limitation, it will not mute windows loading sounds. logging in etc.


Remembering to mute your laptop before shutdown really is the best solution.


Actually...maybe you could create a script to run upon shutdown. This script will mute your machine and then shutdown.

 

Here is a script I wrote up that should satisfy your needs. Read the comments to see what it does. The only thing that I didn't do is make it mute on shutdown because that would mean that I would have to download Visual Basic Studio Express from Microsoft and use one of the Windows event handlers to detect shutdown. Even though its free and would make better code, I'm still not going to download it because I'm lazy. Although, if you send me a new laptop, I'll consider doing it.

The script will mute your computer on boot up, sleep, or hibernation. Attached is a Zip file containing what you need. Unzip the file to a place of your choosing and place a shortcut to the file "Mute.vbs" in your startup folder. For your first time, just double-click on "Mute.vbs" to run it. Thereafter, it will stay running forever or until you kill the program.

 

Bart, that won't stop the logon sound, will it? Why not add a shutdown command at the end and (maybe) use a registry hack to tell the Start Menu to run that script when "Shut Down" is selected?

 

Why dont you just go to your Sound settings > Program events > Disable what ever event is causing that sound.

 

To stop the startup sound, you can turn it off in the sound control panel.

 

Touche.

 

Take a look at this tool:
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,15480-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html
I haven't set it up, but it says it will run in the background, then mute on shutdown. Not sure if it will help with sleep/hibernate though.

 

I tried that program on Vista while writing the script. It doesn't work on Vista and doesn't appear to do anything on sleep/hibernate.

 

Thanks for the help guys, especially Bart. Ill give that script a try if I get some time today. I'm pretty sure that I almost never shut it down anyway so the script will be perfect.
Im usually just watching tv and using my laptop then set the laptop down and totally forget about it so it either sleeps or hibernates...which is why I wanted this in the first place.

 

Thanks guys, I was about to make a thread about this. Bart, your script works perfectly. thanks.

 

Nice, I'd been wondering about how feasible something like this would be off and on for a few months. I've become pretty good about remembering to mute before turn off/hibernate, but still occasionally forget. This should be an improvement. I'll try it in XP and Win7, and edit the post once I've tested it (mods, can this thread not be locked because of necromancy at least until it's been XP/Win7-tested?).

edit: Works with Win7 sleep.