Enabling a shutdown sound on Windows 11

mrjoey98 · Jul 22, 2024

(If this is in the wrong forum, please let me know.)

Hey everyone, I have a question that's likely been asked before elsewhere. As the title says, is there some way to enable a shutdown sound for Windows 11?
Before, I used a trick that dates back to the Windows 8.x days, which was to use Wizmo to play a shutdown sound via a .bat file and Group Policy Editor-- this works fine on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, but it doesn't always work on Windows 11-- I've noticed that I'd have to take the password off my account in order for it to play.
I followed the guide over on TenForums: Play Sound at Shutdown in Windows 10 but once it comes time for me to shut down or restart my computer, there's no sound playing.
I took a look at Task Scheduler and while the task is indeed scheduled, under "Last Run Result," it says "A system shutdown is in progress. (0x8007045B)"
Per a video I saw on YouTube that has the same objective, just with a custom service (to specifically run tasks on shutdown) involved, the same thing happens-- "a system shutdown is in progress".
Another thing I did was relocate my shutdown sound to C:\Windows\Media, but not even that worked. I tried the same thing on my laptop, same result.
I made sure I followed the instructions on both the video and the guide on TenForums to the letter, but I can't get the shutdown sound to play, which, as you can imagine, is really frustrating.

What do you all think? Thanks in advance!

antspants · Jul 22, 2024

mrjoey98 said:
What do you all think?

I think you've exhausted options. I don't think I would personally go to so much trouble just for the sake of a sound that indicates something that I know I've done (shut down) but people want what people want.

Try the registry hack (method 2) in this link?

How To Enable Logoff And Logon Sounds in Window 11/10

The earlier versions of Windows 10 & 11 allowed users to customize almost any of the features of the OS freely, but with the release of Windows 10,

thegeekpage.com

mrjoey98 · Jul 23, 2024

antspants said:
I think you've exhausted options.

I think you might be onto something...
But I've read other people saying that they've gotten this to work... and I'd like to get to the bottom of "A system shutdown is in progress".

antspants · Jul 23, 2024

Perhaps there is a pause needed after the schedule is processed and before shutdown. I know you can have one before, don’t know about an after and I wouldn’t know how to accomplish it

mrjoey98 said:
I've noticed that I'd have to take the password off my account in order for it to play

What do you mean by this? You use a password to login to Windows? How does that affect the shutdown? Have you tried using a pin instead?
.

mrjoey98 · Jul 30, 2024

Sorry for the late reply! To answer your question, though, I do use a PIN-- I have a password too because per Windows itself, you can't use a PIN without a password. I tried removing the password to have just the PIN, but that didn't survive a reboot (in other words, my account was just open). I really don't know how how this affects shutdown, but the first thing that comes to mind is some weird security policy.
I'll keep looking into this, though!

antspants · Jul 30, 2024

Very strange and seems unnecessary. But who knows why Microsoft does what it does?

mrjoey98 · Aug 3, 2024

Update: Just tried it on my laptop, still no dice, unless I get rid of my password.
Strange and unnecessary indeed!

spapakons · Aug 3, 2024

I too had the Windows Logon and Windows Logoff sound entries hidden. Tried the Registry values and they appeared in the Sounds list. So I guess I can just assign the desired sounds to play on Logon and Logoff. Haven't tried it, but it should work. Right-click on the speaker icon on the taskbar and select Sounds to go directly to the sounds list.

Morph000 · Dec 15, 2024

I too would like a shutdown sound ('cos I have a really good one!), but all the "internet answers" just don't work.
The only solution I can see is to create a custom .exe, call it shutdown.exe to replace the Windows one in system32 and have it play the sound by whatever means and only then pass control to the original shutdown.exe which you have renamed to something else.
Microsoft says it's all to speed things up, but then they add spyware, telemetry and bloatware.
Good job Microsoft!

dacrone · Dec 15, 2024

How to play a sound when you Shutdown, Lock, or Unlock Windows 11/10

Learn how to play a sound when you shut down, lock, or unlock Windows 11/10. You need to create a task in Task Scheduler to play the shutdown sound.

www.thewindowsclub.com

it is possible via task

spapakons · Dec 16, 2024

Anyone remember the thunder startup sound when you installed a Creative SoundBlaster audio card in Windows 95/98? If you wanted to make a prank, just turn up the speakers volume and wait for your roommate to switch on the computer.

Morph000 · Dec 21, 2024

Sorry Dacrone, that's one of the methods that don't work or work without issues.

However...I've cracked it !
I can now play a shutdown sound without windows, dialogues, media player popups, OS patches, registry tweaks or any other annoyance, and shut the system down!
First person to crack this since Win 8.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will post after xmas.

dacrone · Dec 21, 2024

Morph000 said:
Sorry Dacrone, that's one of the methods that don't work or work without issues.

However...I've cracked it !
I can now play a shutdown sound without windows, dialogues, media player popups, OS patches, registry tweaks or any other annoyance, and shut the system down!
First person to crack this since Win 8.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will post after xmas.

worked when i tested it... oh.. unless you're talking about the fact that if your account is password-less you must change the user of the task to SYSTEM in order to run with highest privileges.. but i assumed that was a given

AdreKiseque · Jan 5, 2025

Morph000 said:
Sorry Dacrone, that's one of the methods that don't work or work without issues.

However...I've cracked it !
I can now play a shutdown sound without windows, dialogues, media player popups, OS patches, registry tweaks or any other annoyance, and shut the system down!
First person to crack this since Win 8.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will post after xmas.

Any chance you'd like to share with the class?

dacrone · Jan 5, 2025

AdreKiseque said:
Any chance you'd like to share with the class?

they're wrong. i supplied the answer already. follow this tutorial but change the user from your account to "SYSTEM" and it works perfectly.

How to play a sound when you Shutdown, Lock, or Unlock Windows 11/10

Learn how to play a sound when you shut down, lock, or unlock Windows 11/10. You need to create a task in Task Scheduler to play the shutdown sound.

www.thewindowsclub.com

AdreKiseque · Jan 5, 2025

I see, thank you. This will be of great use to me.

dacrone · Jan 5, 2025

AdreKiseque said:
I see, thank you. This will be of great use to me.

How to Play Sound when Unlock Computer in Windows

How to Play Sound when Unlock Computer in Windows Information Locking your PC protects it from unauthorized use when you need to step away from the PC, and don't want to sign out or shut

www.tenforums.com

heres a tutorial to show you how to set a custom .wav file to play via powershell as a task. just change the Trigger to the event ID from the other link and the User to SYSTEM. then you can choose your own .wav file (just in case you're unfamiliar with how to do so via powershell)

AdreKiseque · Jan 5, 2025

Well, this is awkward, but... it doesn't seem to be working. I think I did everything right. I set the shutdown event ID, I set the user to SYSTEM, I set to run with highest privileges and configured for Windows 10. I set the command, pointing to a file in the Media folder, I tested the command and even tested the task, both working as expected. But when I shutdown or restart... nothing. The log doesn't seem to indicate anything off, either. It just has "0x41306" for the last run result, which, looking it up, seems to just mean the task terminates... which is what it's supposed to do, isn't it?

dacrone · Jan 5, 2025

AdreKiseque said:
Well, this is awkward, but... it doesn't seem to be working. I think I did everything right. I set the shutdown event ID, I set the user to SYSTEM, I set to run with highest privileges and configured for Windows 10. I set the command, pointing to a file in the Media folder, I tested the command and even tested the task, both working as expected. But when I shutdown or restart... nothing. The log doesn't seem to indicate anything off, either. It just has "0x41306" for the last run result, which, looking it up, seems to just mean the task terminates... which is what it's supposed to do, isn't it?

works on 23h2 and 24h2 per my test just now

AdreKiseque · Jan 5, 2025

Yeah, no, everything on mine is exactly the same. This is quite strange.
Do you know if there's a way to turn on that "history" tab? Maybe some logging could get us some clues.

Enabling a shutdown sound on Windows 11

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