Windows XP "events and associated sounds - is there a definition list of "events"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Gillingham
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Dave Gillingham

You can associate sounds with various WinXP events. I understand some of the
events, eg close program, device connect etc. But many of the names mean
nothing to me eg asterisk, critical stop, exclamation etc.

Is there a list of Win XP events with the conditions that trigger them?
Dave Gillingham
 
Dave said:
You can associate sounds with various WinXP events. I understand
some of the events, eg close program, device connect etc. But many
of the names mean nothing to me eg asterisk, critical stop,
exclamation etc.

Is there a list of Win XP events with the conditions that trigger
them?
Dave Gillingham
Click to expand...


I don't know of a source for those; wish I did. But here's something
that might help if you want to bother a bit with it.
The "sounds" always drove me nuts too, and were so meaningless as to
be totally useless. So what I did was look into the Media folder and
determine what the possible entries were and made a list of them.
Asterisk, exclamation, etc..
Then I recorded new .wav files by speaking the names of the actions.
I'd speak "asterisk" into the mic, then save it as "asterisk.wav", then
did the same for the rest of them. Open program, close program,
exclamation, etc. etc., and put them in a folder in Media called "Voice
Alerts.
Then I changed the sounds from the defaults to my own voice
recordings. Now when the computer sent an "asterisk", instead of a
meaningless blip, my own voice would speak "asterisk". NOW I could tell
what was what simply by the voice messages I'd made!
Turns out, there are a few that are pretty useful, like Navigation
Started and Navigation Ended. And you can pretty easily figure out what
triggers what.
Now, regardless of whether it showed yet on the screen, I could tell
when someting started and when it finished. Note: Beware Open Program
and Close Program and a few others like that; you won't believe the
cacophony of messages you're hearing as you get a message for every
background task that executes!! lol,

I fine tuned it, turning on the useful ones and off the useless ones
after playing around with them, and kept the voice alerts. Ya gotta
admit "Opening Windows" is a lot better than that ignorant tadaaa every
time<g>!
Eventually I got tired of my own voice so I got my sister to record
the alerts for me; much easier to listen to! Then I found a program that
would give me a British voice, and have stuck with that one ever since.
I like the Brit accent.

My 2 ¢ anyway,
Twayne
 
I don't know of a source for those; wish I did. But here's something
that might help if you want to bother a bit with it.
The "sounds" always drove me nuts too, and were so meaningless as to
be totally useless. So what I did was look into the Media folder and
determine what the possible entries were and made a list of them.
Asterisk, exclamation, etc..
Then I recorded new .wav files by speaking the names of the actions.
I'd speak "asterisk" into the mic, then save it as "asterisk.wav", then
did the same for the rest of them. Open program, close program,
exclamation, etc. etc., and put them in a folder in Media called "Voice
Alerts.
Then I changed the sounds from the defaults to my own voice
recordings. Now when the computer sent an "asterisk", instead of a
meaningless blip, my own voice would speak "asterisk". NOW I could tell
what was what simply by the voice messages I'd made!
Turns out, there are a few that are pretty useful, like Navigation
Started and Navigation Ended. And you can pretty easily figure out what
triggers what.
Now, regardless of whether it showed yet on the screen, I could tell
when someting started and when it finished. Note: Beware Open Program
and Close Program and a few others like that; you won't believe the
cacophony of messages you're hearing as you get a message for every
background task that executes!! lol,

I fine tuned it, turning on the useful ones and off the useless ones
after playing around with them, and kept the voice alerts. Ya gotta
admit "Opening Windows" is a lot better than that ignorant tadaaa every
time<g>!
Eventually I got tired of my own voice so I got my sister to record
the alerts for me; much easier to listen to! Then I found a program that
would give me a British voice, and have stuck with that one ever since.
I like the Brit accent.

My 2 ¢ anyway,
Twayne
Click to expand...
Thanks for the idea. Seems odd, doesn't it that Windows lets you change or stop
these sounds, but Win Help tells you nothing about "events" - at least, not as
far as I can find it. Nor does the reference text by Levine & Young that I
purchased.

I only like sounds if they're important, not just for the sake of having a
sound. But I don't want to remove one that's a vital warning.
Dave Gillingham
 
Dave Gillingham said:
I only like sounds if they're important, not just for the sake of having a
sound. But I don't want to remove one that's a vital warning.
Click to expand...

I doubt it matters. There's no guarantee you'd be within earshot of your
machine when something goes wrong, or (if you were using your machine in the
small hours and the rest of the family are asleep) that the volume would be
high enough to hear a warning tone.

And, either the machine goes ahead and does something awful (in which case
the tone hasn't helped you), or it doesn't do it (in which case you don't
need to hear it).
 
Oh, it can matter and being able to tell one from the other can be a
huge aid in troubleshooting when something goes wrong. Or they can be
an aid to eliminate what didn't go wrong (process of elimination). They
can be an aid in online work, letting you know some process has
completed and that you can move on, without having to wait for the
server to send you the page saying it all worked, and other little
niceties here & there.
That's precisely why I changed each sound to a voice wav, learned
which ones were meaningful to me, and turned off the others. Now they
are meaningful and useful sounds.

Because I may not be sitting at the machine or nearby to hear a message,
as in overnight say, is no reason to not bother with them. At night all
that happens is backups & archival ops so there's not much activity
anyway. But when I am at the machine, they are quite useful. Ymmv of
course; to each his own.

Regards,

Twayne
 
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