Turning on and off Mail sound

Question

Hi

I want to turn mail sound on and off programmatically using Visual Basic or C#.

The settings used in previous versions of Windows was located in the registry’s CURRENT_USER AppEvents\Schemes\Apps.Default\MailBeep folder, but this settings seems to be ignored.

I have found bits of settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Settings\Data\global_Mail_PlaySound, but changing the value in code has no effect in the client.

I don’t want to turn off sound totally, I just want to change the setting for mail sound to on or off using some code in VB or C# with an application argument.

This code does not do the trick:
Dim comArgs() As String = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs

For Each comArg In comArgs
    If comArg.ToLower.Contains("/on") Then
        'Sätt på ljudet
        Dim setValue As String = "{""name"":""Mail_PlaySound"",""itemClass"":""roamingsetting"",""id"":""RgAAAAA0zT-l4Q-tQLHwADYCw-ouBwDtV__ZDum8T7CsDsO5wuSsAAIBrEpfAADtV__ZDum8T7CsDsO5wuSsAAJfiXx-AAAA0"",""scope"":""Global"",""parentSetting"":"""",""secondaryKey"":"""",""status"":""SYNCEDTOSERVICE"",""type"":""Bool"",""timestamp"":0,""metadata"":"""",""value"":""true"",""isFirstSync"":""false""}"
        My.Computer.Registry.SetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Settings\Data", "global_Mail_PlaySound", setValue)
        Exit For
    End If
    If comArg.ToLower.Contains("/off") Then
        'Stäng av ljudet                
        Dim setValue As String = "{""name"":""Mail_PlaySound"",""itemClass"":""roamingsetting"",""id"":""RgAAAAA0zT-l4Q-tQLHwADYCw-ouBwDtV__ZDum8T7CsDsO5wuSsAAIBrEpfAADtV__ZDum8T7CsDsO5wuSsAAJfiXx-AAAA0"",""scope"":""Global"",""parentSetting"":"""",""secondaryKey"":"""",""status"":""SYNCEDTOSERVICE"",""type"":""Bool"",""timestamp"":0,""metadata"":"""",""value"":""false"",""isFirstSync"":""false""}"
        My.Computer.Registry.SetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Settings\Data", "global_Mail_PlaySound", setValue)
        Exit For
    End If
Next

Has anybody any idea on how to do this?

Regards
Peter Karlström

Answer 1

Hi

You got me on the right track there. Thanks
The actual value for mail sound is here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps.Default\Notification.Mail.Current.
Another misleading fact is that the filename is translated to Swedish, so I didn't find it with a search in the Registry.

This is the new code:

Sub main()

Dim comArgs() As String = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs

For Each comArg In comArgs
    If comArg.ToLower.Contains("/on") Then
        'Turn on sound
        Dim setValue As String = "C:\WINDOWS\media\notify.wav"
        My.Computer.Registry.SetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.Mail\.Current", "", setValue)
        Exit For
    End If
    If comArg.ToLower.Contains("/off") Then
        'Torn sound off
        Dim setValue As String = ""
        My.Computer.Registry.SetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\Notification.Mail\.Current", "", setValue)
        Exit For
    End If
Next

End Sub

Thanks.