How to disable the system speaker in Windows

Is your computer making noise even though the volume is turned off?

Like me you might use some sloppily-written or prehistoric programs that make alert or warning sounds using the PC’s internal system speaker instead of the normal audio system. When the audio volume is down or muted, or even when Windows is set to use a ‘no sounds’ profile, the programs still make loud and annoying honks and beeps while you work.

Suffer no longer!

1. right click my computer -> manage -> device manager
2. view -> show hidden devices
3. in the main window expand ‘non-plug and play’
4. (Windows XP) right-click on ‘beep’ and choose ‘disable’, or
   (Windows Vista) right-click on ‘beep’ and choose ‘properties’, go to the Driver tab, then choose ‘disable’ from the ‘Startup’ drop-down menu.
   
5. restart the computer

Silence is golden.