You’ll be glad to know that Windows also allows the use of visual cues or text instead of audio notifications. Read on to explore how you can set visual alerts for Windows notifications.
Facing Problems Hearing Windows’ Notifications? Use Visual Alerts Instead
Windows comes with a lot of audio-only alerts which may go over the head of someone who can’t hear them. For example, Windows has little chimes that play when you connect or eject a USB drive, or when a USB port is not working. You can also hear them when you receive a desktop mail notification, or a low or critical battery alert.
Other alerts you may have experienced could be when a mouse freezes or malfunctions, a keyboard is incompatible, or when a Windows system error occurs.
Undoubtedly these notifications are useful, especially when you need to attend to something urgently. But what if you can’t hear these audio notifications? What if you or a loved one have a hearing problem?
Also, you won’t be able to hear notifications if you are outside in an environment that is too noisy. Or you could be in a place where you need to keep your Windows device muted so that you don’t disturb others, like a library.
However, even if you can’t hear the notifications, you can see them by setting up visual alerts on your PC screen instead of Windows sounds. Visual alerts are easy to set up and can be done in three ways.
How to Set Up Visual Alerts via the Settings on Windows 10
Setting up visual alerts from Windows 10 Settings is a breeze. Here’s how:
Press Win + I together to open Settings. Click Ease of Access and then under Hearing select Audio from the left pane. Under Show audio alerts visually, click on the Down Arrow next to No visual alert to expand the menu. You will see three options: Flash the title bar of the active window, Flash the active window, and Flash the entire screen. If you choose Flash the title bar of the active window, only the title bar of the active window on the screen will flash. It’s subtle, so here’s a screenshot of what it looks like: If you select Flash the active window, it will instead make the entire active window flash to alert you: If you feel you need a more prominent visual alert you can choose the option to Flash the entire screen. This will invert all the colors on the screen, like in the example below.
How to Set Visual Alerts From Settings on Windows 11
You’ll find only a few differences when settings visual alerts on Windows 11. Let’s explore the steps.
Press Windows + I keys together to open Settings. Select Accessibility from the left pane. Under the Hearing section click on Audio. You will find Flash my screen during audio notifications. Click on the Down Arrow next to Never to expand the menu. You will see three options: Flash the title bar of the active window, Flash the active window, and Flash the entire screen. Choose the visual alert option you want and Windows will flash your screen during notifications accordingly.
How to Set Visual Alerts Through the Control Panel on Windows 10 and 11
If you prefer to use the Control Panel to set visual alerts, here’s how to do it on Windows 10 and 11.
Search for Control Panel and click on Control Panel under Best match. Click on Ease of Access Center to open it. On Windows 11 it will be Ease of Access. In Windows 10 Ease of Access Center, under Explore all settings, click on Use text or visual alternatives for sounds. In Windows 11 Ease of Access Center, click on Replace sounds with visual cues.
You will see four options under Choose visual warning. The default setting is None, so you’ll want to set it to one of the other options: Flash active caption bar, Flash active window, and Flash desktop.
Here, the Flash active caption bar is the same as the Flash title bar of the active window, and Flash desktop signifies Flash the entire screen—the options you get while using Settings. Choose the option you want to use for visual alerts for notifications.
If you want to turn on text captions, check the box next to Turn on text captions for spoken dialog.
How to Set Visual Alerts via the Registry Editor on Windows 10 and 11
The Registry Editor is a tool where you can view and change the settings in the system registry. You should be cautious while editing the registry and it would be a good idea to enable automatic registry backups. If something goes wrong, you can restore Windows to normal with a good backup.
The Registry Editor is another place from where you can set visual alerts for notifications. Let’s see how.
Open Windows Search, then look for Registry Editor and click on Registry Editor under Best match. Alternatively, press the Win + R keys to open the Run prompt. Type regedit in the window and click OK or press Enter. Click Yes on the User Account Control prompt. Navigate the following path under Computer in the left pane: HKEY > CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Accessibility > SoundSentry. Alternatively, after you open Registry Editor, copy and paste the following Registry Key after Computer\ in the navigation bar: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\SoundSentry On the right pane, in front of Flags REG_SZ, the value would be set to 3. If not, double-click on Flags and put the value as 3. This 3 denotes turning on visual notifications for sound. On the right pane, you can put any of the following numerical values in front of Windows Effect to set visual notifications as per your preference: 0 = None, 1 = Flash active title bar, 2 = Flash active window, and 3 = Flash entire display. So just double-click Windows Effects to put the value and set the type of visual notification you want. For the visual alert to take effect, you will need to sign out of your account and sign in again, or just restart your computer.
If you ever want to disable visual alerts, just put the Flags value as 2 and the Windows Effect as 0.
Stay Alert With Visual Notifications on Windows
Don’t let hearing problems or situations stop you from being notified. Use visual cues instead of Windows sounds to stay alert and updated.
Moreover, setting visual alerts could also be handy if you don’t like getting disturbed while enjoying a song or YouTube video on your Windows PC.
