Installment #4 in the series on XP

By Chuck Jennings

Setting Sound Accessibility Options

Windows includes options to help translate the sounds programs make for people who have difficulty hearing. The sound accessibility options don't work for all sounds, but they do work for most sounds generated by Windows and for some sounds generated by applications. The options are found on the Sound tab of the Accessibility Options dialog box, shown in Figure 16-2. Choose Start | Control Panel | Accessibility Options, run the Accessibility Options icon, and click the Sound tab.

The two sound options are SoundSentry and ShowSounds:

SoundSentry tells Windows to use a flashing element on the screen to tell the user a sound has been made. Set the Choose The Visual Warning box to choose a screen element to flash. We recommend choosing either the Flash Active Caption Bar or the Flash Active Window option--otherwise, it's impossible to determine which application caused the sound.

ShowSounds option displays a caption on the screen each time Windows (and some other programs) makes a sound.