Every time you get a notification Windows 11 plays a sound. If you are tired of the default notification sound, you can change it to whatever you want. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to change the notification sound to other preset sounds or a custom one. Let’s get started.
Choosing a Preset Notification Sound
Windows 11 has several built-in sounds, allowing you to change the default notification sound. Here’s how to do it via the Settings app:
First, press the Windows key + I to open the Settings window. Once it opens, navigate to the Personalization > Themes page. Here, click on the Sounds option at the top.
The above action will open the Sound window. Under the Program Events section, scroll down and select the Notification event. Next, select a preset sound from the Sounds dropdown menu. To preview the sound, select it in the dropdown and click Test. Once satisfied, click OK to save changes. In my case, I chose the Tada sound.
(Options) Windows 11 uses a different sound for system notification events such as plugging in external drives. If you want, you can customize that too. To do that, select the System Notification event and select a sound from the dropdown menu.
That’s all there is to it. From now on, Windows 11 plays the new sound whenever there is a notification. If you want to set a custom sound as your notification sound, read the next section.
Setting a Custom Sound as Your Notification Sound
If you don’t like the preset sounds included in Windows 11, you can set a custom sound as your notification sound. Here’s how to do it:
First of all, make sure that you have the custom sound ready. It should be in .wav format. If the audio file is in some other format, like .mp3, convert it to .wav. There are many free online converters out there, use one of them.
Note: If you cannot see file extensions, enable file extensions on Windows 11.
Once you have the audio file ready (in .wav format), select it and press Ctrl + C to copy it to the clipboard. Next, open File Explorer by pressing Windows key + E and navigate to the C:\Windows\Media folder. Here, press Ctrl + V to paste the copied audio file. If you see a UAC (User Account Control) prompt, click Yes.
After copying the file, press Windows key + I to open Settings. Navigate to the Personalization > Themes page and click on Sounds.
In the Sounds window, select the Notification event under the Program Events section and use the Sounds dropdown menu to select your new custom sound. To preview the selected sound, click Test. Once satisfied, click OK to save changes.
Optionally, you can also change the System Notification sound to the custom sound so that you hear it for system events such as when you plug in your thumb drive.
And there you have it. From now on, whenever there is a notification, Windows 11 plays your custom notification sound. I hope this simple Windows 11 customization tip helped you.
More Windows 11 personalization guides:
- How to set screen saver on Windows 11
- How to make recycle bin invisible
- How to make Windows 11 taskbar transparent
- How to set HRD wallpaper
- How to show weather info on the lock screen
- How to rename a drive on Windows 11
- How to change Windows 11 accent color
- How to change Windows Terminal background
- More personalization guides.
