Section 10.26. Sounds and Audio Devices

10.26. Sounds and Audio Devices

The five tabs within this panel control every aspect of your microphone, speakers , and associated software.

• The Volume Tab governs the speaker volume for your system, but you'd be crazy to open the Control Panel and this program every time you want to adjust your PC speakers. Fortunately, the "Place volume icon in the taskbar" checkbox puts a speaker icon in your notification area, near the time display. Click that icon to open a much more convenient volume slider.

• The Sounds Tab lets you fiddle with Windows' little sound effectsthe beeps, musical ripples, and chords that play all the time: when you turn on the PC, trigger an error message, empty the Recycle Bin, and so on. And if you like, you can hear them on many other occasions, such as when you open or exit a program, open a menu, restore a window, and so on. This tab lets you specify which sound effect plays for which situation (Figure 10-10).

• Use the Audio tab to select and configure your microphones and speakers. (Most people have only one gadget for each purpose, so making a choice isn't exactly a brainteaser.)

• Use the Voice tab to select and configure your microphone.

• The Hardware tab offers a subset of the Device Manager (see Section 9.7). It presents a list of the sound, video, and movie- related hardware components on your PC, and identifies them by brand and model.