Many websites that have been designed to continuously monitor specific events use an automatic refresh to ensure the most recent data is visible. This is usually accomplished either through a REFRESH META tag in the HTML header, or by using JavaScript to set an elapsed time after which the page is refreshed. Other more complicated and sometimes less desirable methods use Flash or Java applets to continuously access data directly from the database.
An often annoying side effect is that Microsoft Internet Explorer (at least on Windows platforms) makes a clicking sound at every refresh, the same sound made when clicking a hyperlink or pressing a form button. Refreshing a web page every five seconds could become the modern-day equivalent of Chinese water torture.
If you have a web application that is likely to be sitting and refreshing for long periods of time, and you wish to get rid of the clicking sound without simply turning your speakers down or off, you’re in luck. The good news is that it can be done. The potentially bad news is that turning the sound off is a system-wide feature; no websites you view will click. There is no way currently to specify that an individual page or website should not click. It’s all or none.
To remove the sound, start with your Control Panel.
- On Windows 95/98/2000, doubleclick on the “Sounds and Multimedia” icon and choose the “Sounds” tab.
- On Windows XP, doubleclick the “Sounds and Audio Devices” icon and choose the “Sounds” tab.
- On Windows NT, just doubleclick the “Sounds” icon.
From here, the instructions are the same for each of the above operating systems. Scroll down in the “Sound Events” window until you reach the “Windows Explorer” section. In this section there is a “Start Navigation” option to assign sounds to. In the “Name” Drop down menu select “None” and then hit “OK”.
Done!
Thanx! this tip was very very useful!
Thank you very much. What an anoying clicking sound!!!
I built a very simple VBscript that toggles the sound off and on with a registry change. I’ve only tested it on Win2K and WinXPsp1. but I think it should work on any windows system running IE6. The script can be downloaded here. Send an email to admin on that domain if it doesn’t work.
I can’t imagine a more horrific idea than trusting a website to change settings in your system registry! – RDL
RDL: I agree and if I were going to use the VBS that I created, I would open it and run it only if I could see the source code and see what it’s doing. I don’t want to try allay anyone’s fears because it’s so easy to take advantage. I suggest that anyone who wants to use my VBS, right-click the link and save the file to your system locally. Scan with your favorite anti-virus. Scan it using the free online scanners. Scan it with about 20 of the best AV programs at once at http://www.virustotal.com. Open it up in notepad and see what it does. All it does it change one entry in the registry. The sound file is stored here in the registry: HKeyCurrentUserAppEventsSchemesAppsExplorerNavigating.current The VBScript takes whatever filename is there and puts “NoClick_” in front of it so IE will try use a non-existant file. If the “NoClick_” is already there, the VBScript removes it to instantly restore the setting. If you feel like going through the steps you described above, I have no problem with that at all. Seriously.
“I don’t want to try allay anyone’s fears…” I hope you construct your code with more care than you do your sentences.
Luckily for me, many code construction errors are discovered by the scripting host. The simplicity of the code and the task also mean there are many paths to the same result. Luckily for me again, many sentence construction errors are discovered by people like Sean. Unfortunately for me, people like Sean like to criticize, but never constructively. I sure would like to know why that sentence is a problem. Is it the apparent contradiction between “not wanting to allay fears” and then appearing to try allay fears? In any case, Sean, thanks for your input on the subject. I know several people have actually downloaded the script this month and I am interested in their thoughts on the code.
Unfortunately for me some people like to see offense where none is really intended. I had intended my comment as a good natured teasing. I suppose I should have included the
or marker to make it more clear. Sigh, the problems of dealing in text where vocal inflection doesn’t exist (and people don’t make allowance for its absence). And, yeah, it was the juxtaposition that got me on first reading. Although now going back I see better the intent of your comment.
I have a HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 and the clicking noise occurs each time I touch the tablet’s screen, with my pen. If any one knows how to disable the clicking sound, on a tablet pc, I would really appreciate the tip.
thank U very much…the tip has been really useful…
THANK YOU! I’ve hated this clicking noise for the longest time and have always turned my speakers down. It’s great now
Todd
Hello,
Everyones problem is solved except mine. I did exactly as said by whats his face at the top about selecting ‘None’ in the ‘Start navigation’ under ‘Windows Explorer’ in ‘Sounds and Devices’ only to find it was already set to ‘None’. The clicking is pretty new to me, recently I downloaded ‘Avira AntiVir’ and also ‘Mozilla Firefox’. As the clicking started some time after after these were installed I can only assume it is coming from them. I did a virus scan with ‘Avira AntiVir’ and got rid of about 3 or 4 different viruses/worms with thousands of copies of themselves.
If its any help I’ve tried selecting ‘No sound’ under ‘Sound scheme’ just above the ‘sound events’ bit but even then the clicking doesn’t stop. It is coming from my speakers and starts before I have even logged on to my user on the Windows welcome screen! I’m thinking its probably a virus but none of the following have picked up anything:
‘Avira AntiVir’
‘McAfee Antivirus’ (fairly old i.e I haven’t payed for the new subscription yet, since about christmas)
‘Spy-bot’
‘Ad-Aware’
‘Windows Defender’
I have no idea of how to stop it except for turning down the speakers. Could somebody please help or give me the name of the best anti viruses and where they excell and don’t.
Thank you very much for any replies.
From Tim
Also, it seems that the harder my computer works the faster the clicking goes.
Thanks, Tim
Thank you thank you thank you. Two gateway tech support people could not help me with this. I got new speakers and can’t listen to music while navigating because of that dåmn click. This was extremely helpful!!!!!
Thank you! For a while I didn’t even pay attention to this noise, then today it just got to be too annoying and I went looking for a fix. Thanks a bunch.
Thanks guys, I Googled “clicking on speakers” and ended up here. No more clicking.
Thank you, Christine.
Thank you so much. i’m listening to an online radio station that updates the song list every 10 seconds, and you’re right, that clicking was like chinese water torture. thanks so much!
Thank you, thank you
HI,
Thanks for this. I have an Active Desktop setup on 70+ call centre machines to provide real-time data to the staff and the clicking noise was being sent down the headset everytime the page refreshed! How very annoying!
Using the key provided i’ve now disabled it via a script.
Also, in regards to JJL’s helpful script, download it, right-click it, edit it, read it, if you don’t understand it, or it downloads malware from a server, don’t run it! Easy!.
Thanks again.
Thank You 10^10 times!
Instead of that vbs script JJL posted, there is a simple one line command that will turn it off if you need to run it on lots of computers.
Simply run:
REG ADD HKCUAppEventsSchemesAppsExplorerNavigating.Current /ve /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d “”
to disable it.
Oh man thanks for this information. That sound was bothering me big time. Thank you soo much …..
Your right I assume, it is equivilant to chinese water touture.
Regarding the annoying clicking sound generated by Internet Explorer. I’m using windows xp & I have done everthing to try to turn it off to no affect. I’ve gone through the sound & media icon and click on the sound tab and selected no sound entirely. There are no longer any other sounds including when I click on the mouse on a web page but the page refreshing itself still generate a sound every 10 seconds or closer. Please Help!!!
I have the same problem as a few of the others. Turning off all sound does not help and I’m anxious about running a registry code. Can someone please comment on whether that fixed their problem?
Dood! I found this site on a Google search. Thanks so much for the posting. Can’t tell you how the refresh click was driving me nuts. I wouldn’t have thought about “start navigation” as being the culprit.