Comments on: Mute Sound Volume in WSH

By: Assaf

Assaf — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:21:04 +0000

thank you very much!

By: WildCard

WildCard — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:32:17 +0000

One way you can make good use of the keyboard press mute toggle is to unmute the system volume first. Raising or lowering the system volume will automatically unmute.

By raising the volume one notch and bringing it back one notch (returning it to what ever level it was set to) and then using the mute toggle to ensures the system volume will be muted each and every time the script is run.

‘Mute system volume script (keyboard press volume control)
Set WshShell = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)

‘Raise Volume 1 step (keyboard press volume up)
‘Lower Volume 1 step (keyboard press volume down)
WshShell.SendKeys (chr(175))
WshShell.SendKeys (chr(174))

‘Mute toggle (keyboard press mute toggle)
WshShell.SendKeys(chr(&hAD))

By: Rjnn Suibne

Rjnn Suibne — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:03:10 +0000

If you do something like this:

Set WshShell = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
WshShell.SendKeys “{” & chr(174) & ” 25}”

which sets the volume to 0. Unorthodox, but it works. Not sure if it is a true mute as I have heard minute sound at volume 0 on some machines but is a trick I use.

Usually I use that on a Computer at home I have hooked up to a TV. I need to play movies at a higher volume, but I keep my video game volume low, so after the WshShell.SendKeys “{” & chr(174) & ” 25}” line, I wrote something like:

WshShell.SendKeys “{” & chr(175) & chr(32) & volUp”}”

where volUp is a specified value in range of 0-25.

By: Cozman

Cozman — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:23:37 +0000

Works fine on xp sp3. Thanks a bunch.
I wish I could find the cause of it auto-muting.
It mutes itself many times a day.

By: hpo14

hpo14 — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:38:35 +0000

i dont know why this doesnt work on my windows XP ?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:27:22 +0000

Thanks

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:50:22 +0000

That’s really sweet! I’d often wondered how those keyboards worked.

By: Nilpo

Nilpo — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:03:25 +0000

Unfortunately, you cannot use this method of checking the current system volume. The SendKeys method only simulates key strokes. It does not offer a return value as it is not a function.

By: Arkady

Arkady — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:26:41 +0000

So, that does indeed mean that one can check for system state with conditional and then act on it - “if WshShell.SendKeys(chr(?)) is greater then 173 then WshShell.SendKeys(chr(173))”

What would be the syntax to do it? Please help.

By: Alexander

Alexander — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:06:56 +0000

I use it for map the STOP key (browser) of a keyboard that hasn’t MUTE key.
All this throught “Tweak UI” utility on Windows XP.

Thanks !!!

By: Daniel Skantze

Daniel Skantze — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:15:56 +0000

Another solution is to just lower the volume:
WshShell.SendKeys(chr(174))

Or raise the volume:
WshShell.SendKeys(chr(175))

Each 174 or 175 code changes the volume only by a small amount so you will have to repeat the command.

By: Daniel Skantze

Daniel Skantze — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:17:24 +0000

Nice one!

By: Rob Bos

Rob Bos — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:19:19 +0000

I’d like people to have the option of turning on the sound at any time. I work at a university library, and I’m specifically talking about lending laptops. Headphones ought to be usable. Thus all sound should be off unless the user specifically enables it.

So I’d hoped to be able to mute the system sound on logout and startup.

It’s possible that disabling the various beeps and blorts that Windows throws out might be sufficient, but it seems inelegant.

By: Nilpo

Nilpo — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:20:16 +0000

Hi Rob.

I haven’t found any reliable way of determining whether the system sound is currently muted or not. However, I have a couple of other solutions that may work for you. Are you looking to mute the sound all of the time or just during certain events? Some options might include:

1. enabling/disabling the sound device,
2. enabling/disabling system sounds,
3. or starting/stopping the Windows Audio service.

By: Rob Bos

Rob Bos — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:46:32 +0000

Clever solution, but how can you detect whether the system is muted or not? Being able to toggle in a script isn’t much use if you don’t know the mute state.

I want to ensure that a laptop is muted. Toggling doesn’t do me much good if it’s already muted.