It’s been a while since I threw a Mac tip into the mix, so here goes.
A pet-hate of mine is that annoying noise that plays when your machine starts up. Whether it’s a PC or a Mac, I have no idea why someone would think it was a good idea to by default play a sound at startup, or shutdown for that matter.
What is the benefit of that? No, I can’t think of it either.
Strange thing is, on the Mac it’s not something you can easily get rid of. So, other than remembering to mute the sound before shutdown, you’re was stuck with it. Grrrr.
However, after a little bit of digging about, I’ve found a method to stop the startup sound on the Mac without the rest of the sound being muted.
Unfortunately it’s an add-in as opposed to a hack, but it does the job.
Just go to the Arcana Research site and download their little add-in – StartupSound.prefPane – and follow the instructions.
Once you install, an extra icon, called “Startup Sound”, appears in your System Preferences app. Just click it and check the ‘mute’ checkbox: Job done. No more annoying startup noise.
(although for some strange reason it also lets you set a specific volume for it should you so wish; more craziness!)
