How to Change Windows 10 System Sounds

Tired of hearing the default Windows 10 sounds? You can change them

What to Know

• Enter Change system sounds in the Windows search bar. The Sound tab opens.
• Under Program Events, choose an event; then select a Sound, or Browse to upload a .WAV file. Test >Apply >OK.
• To turn off sound effects, select No Sounds in the Sound Scheme drop-down menu >Apply >OK.

Microsoft offers numerous ways to customize its Windows operating systems. This article explains how to adjust the sound settings on PCs running Windows 10.

Which Windows Sounds Can Be Customized In Windows 10?

Windows 10 allows you to set custom sounds for system notifications (like low battery alerts) and sound effects for actions such as closing a program or emptying the recycle bin. To help you navigate the many different kinds of system sounds, the sound settings menu divides them up into the following categories:

• Windows (system): Includes sounds for things like battery notifications and instant messages.
• File Explorer: Handles sounds for things like moving menu items and blocked pop-up windows.
• Windows Speech Recognition: This category deals with sounds for things like turning the speech recognition feature on and off.

How to Access Windows 10 Sound Settings

The easiest way to access your Windows 10 system sound settings is to type Change System Sounds in the Windows search box, and then select Change System Sounds.

To access the sound settings from the Windows control panel:

Select the Windows icon in the taskbar, then select the gear to open Windows Settings.

Select System.

Select Sound in the left pane, then select Sound Control Panel under Related Settings in the top-right corner.

Select the Sounds tab in the window that pops up.

How to Customize Windows 10 Audio Settings

There are two main ways you can change your Windows 10 system sounds once you’ve accessed the sound settings: You can either totally turn off the system sounds, or you can adjust and change the sound effects assigned to each program event. An example of a program event would be a low battery notification.

How to Change Sound Effects for an Event in Windows 10

Once you have accessed your sound settings:

Select an event under Program Events.

Select the box under Sounds to choose from a list, or select Browse to search your computer for your own sound effects files.

Your chosen sound effect must be in the WAV format.

Once you’ve selected a sound effect, select Test for a preview, then select Apply. and OK.

How to Turn Off the System Sounds

To turn off all of the system sounds in Windows 10:

In the Windows 10 sound settings, select the box under Sound Scheme, then select No Sounds.

Select Apply, then select OK.

To turn off the sound for individual events, select one of the options under Program Events.

Select the box under Sounds. Choose None from the list that appears.

Select Apply and OK.

How To Enable Spatial Sound in Windows 10

Windows 10 Creators Update comes with a new feature, Spatial Sound if you are listening to audio through your headphones. When enabled, the audio feels like it is playing around you as opposed to through the headphones. In simpler words, it is a 3D sound effect or surround sound. It is disabled by default. Here is how to enable it.

To Enable Spatial Sound in Windows 10, right click the sound icon in the notification area (system tray).

Select «Playback devices» from the context menu.

Select the playback device in the list and click the button Properties.

Go to the Spatial sound tab and select the spatial sound format, which includes Windows Sonic for Headphones and Dolby Atmos for headphones.

Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology announced by the Dolby in 2012. It allows up to 128 audio tracks along with the associated spatial audio description metadata to create a dynamically rendering sound environment. During playback, each audio system renders the audio objects in real-time such that each sound is coming from its designated spot with respect to the loudspeakers present in the target theater.

In contrast, traditional multichannel technology essentially burns all the source audio tracks into a fixed number of channels during post-production. This has traditionally forced the re-recording mixer to make assumptions about the playback environment that may not apply very well to a particular theater. The addition of audio objects allows the mixer to be more creative, to bring more sounds off screen, and be confident of the results.

Dolby Atmos requires a special app from the Windows Store. If you choose this option, it will install the Dolby Access software based on Universal Windows Platform. In addition to headphones, the application supports sound enhancement for your Home Theater device. However, it should have hardware support of this particular Dolby technology. Here is how it looks:

Once your Home Theater is connected (for example, with an HDMI cable), you will be able to pick it as the «format» in the configuration window of the Dolby Access app. It does not provide many options. Just pick the profile and the app will configure your hardware automatically.

The other option is Windows Sonic which is Microsoft’s audio platform for surround sound. It includes integrated spatial sound on Xbox and Windows, with support for both surround and elevation (above or below the listener) audio cues. The actual output format is selected by the user, and can be abstracted from Windows Sonic implementations; audio will be presented to speakers, headphones, and home theater receivers without needing any code or content changes.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

1 thought on “ How To Enable Spatial Sound in Windows 10 ”

Why you didn’t mention that Dolby’s technology requires a payment? Anyway, talking about Windows Sonic, it didn’t impress me as the sound was a little bit clearer without any effects.

Fix: Channel Surround Sound Not Working in Windows 10

Windows 10 upgrade from prior versions of Windows is free and many users have opted to upgrade, whenever you upgrade there are likely to be conflicts and compatibility issues most commonly with the drivers you previously had that were designed and developed for your previous operating system.

Windows 10 does support most of your previously installed applications and drivers but you may need to upgrade them. The Channel surround sound not working in Windows 10 is one of such issues faced by users who upgraded to Windows 10. Users are getting basic sound from front speakers; however, they are not getting any sound from rear speakers.

Usually, the issue is prevalent in systems having Realtek’s 5.1 sound card. Because the Realtek’s 5.1 sound card is working properly in Windows 7 and 8.x, users are looking towards Microsoft for the solution to this issue. Microsoft support personnel announced that they are working on the issue. However, Microsoft has still not provided a fix.

Update: After more than two years, the surround sound is still partially broken in Windows 10. Even if fixes were implemented on builds 10586.1 and build 10586.3, the issue still partially remains. Right now, the issue only affects surround sound encoded in real-time like games or DTS Live. Pre-recorded surround tracks like the ones found on DVDs and Blu Rays are now working fine under Windows 10. With the new sound technologies like Dolby Atmos and Sonic, Microsoft is unlikely to ever release an official patch for the 5.1 surround issue for Windows 10. Microsoft is once again using planned obsolescence to force consumers into migrating to Sonic and Atmos.

While we wait eagerly for Microsoft to release an official fix for this issue, let’s go over some solutions that have enabled users to fix their channel surround problems on Windows 10. Please follow each method in order until you find a fix that works for you.

Method 1: Enabling Speaker Fill

One solution that seems particularly effective for users struggling with the 5.1 channels issue is to enable enhancements and Speaker Fill. While this will allow you to use all your speakers when running Windows 10, the overall sound quality will be lowered. Instead of getting the full audio spectrum possible through all the channels, the rear speakers will use virtualization to provide a surround-like effect. Here’s what you need to do to enable speaker fill:

1. Press Windows key + R and type “mmsys.cpl”. Hit Enter to open the Sound dialog box.
   
2. Go to the Playback tab, select your 5.1 surround speakers and click on Properties.
   
3. In Speaker Properties, go to the Enhancement tab and uncheck the box next to Disable all sound effects. Then, Scroll down to the menu below and check the box next to Speaker Fill. Hit Apply to save your configuration.
   
4. Reboot your device and see whether you can hear sound from your rear speakers. If you have the same issue, move over to the next method.

Method 2: Changing the Audio Format to 24/96

This following method is particularly effective if your audio is outputted through S/PDIF. Some users have successfully enabled the 5.1 surround sound after changing the audio format to 24 bit, 96000 Hz. This also proved to be effective with users who had trouble enabling Dolby Direct Live. Follow the steps down below o change the audio format to 24/96:

1. Press Windows key + R and type “mmsys.cpl”. Hit Enter to open the Sound dialog box.
   
2. Go to the Playback tab, select your 5.1 surround speakers and click on Properties.
   
3. Next, go to the Advanced tab and use the drop-down menu below Default Format to change the audio format to 24 bit, 96000 Hz (Studio Quality). Hit Apply to save your modifications.
   
4. Reboot your system and see whether 5.1 channel surround is now working. If nothing changed for the better, move to the next method.

Method 3: Uninstalling Windows Audio Driver

Some users have remedied this issue by uninstalling the sound driver from Device Manager. This will force Windows to reinstall the driver and often time it will automatically install a newer version. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Hold the Windows Key and Press X and choose Device Manager.
2. Double-click Audio inputs and outputs to show the sub-items. Right-click on the installed devices one by one, and click Uninstall. Click OK in the Confirm Device Uninstall dialog.
3. After uninstalling the old device drivers, click on Scan for hardware changes from the Action tab.

Windows 10 will try to automatically install the drivers for your audio devices at the next reboot. If prompted, click Search automatically for updated driver software, and let Windows 10 install the drivers. In most cases, you will be able to get your 5.1 surround sound back after you reinstall the audio drives.

Note: If Windows doesn’t automatically download and install the audio driver, you’ll need to go to your onboard sound card manufacturer website and manually download the driver (for Realtek onboard, download the High Definition Audio Driver from here). After that, check your audio and see if the 5.1 surround sound is working.

If your still not getting signal to the rear speakers, you have little else to do but to buy a speaker with the newest technology (powered by Atmos or Sonic) or buy a dedicated 5.1 sound card that is known to function properly under Windows 10 (there aren’t many). A more desperate solution would be to revert back to Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, to when 5.1 surround channels where fully supported.