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How do I disable American Online (AOL) audio event sounds?

I want to get the sqeeky door and loud bang off AOL went it first comes up on my computer when I turn it on.

Dave's Answer:

There are a couple of ways you can solve the problem you're having with America Online sound effects, depending on whether you want to turn it off, or change the sound. What you're talking about is your "Welcome" sound and it's one of three bsaic sounds associated with using AOL. The other two are "You've got mail" and "Goodbye".

The first step is to log in to your AOL account (I use AOL 9.0 for these examples, but earlier versions should be approximately the same) and click on the "Settings" button along the top toolbar. You'll get here:

As you can see, there's more than one match for "Sound". If you want to disable the Welcome sound and other sounds completely so that you have a silent AOL experience, then click on "Sounds - Setting" and you'll be taken to AOL's Multimedia Settings:

America Online - AOL - Multimedia Settings

Notice the last option: "Enable AOL Sounds such as the Welcome greeting and Instant Message chimes". Uncheck this box, and save the changes and you'll never be bothered by audio feedback or slamming doors again!

However, let's back up and change your sound to something more fun instead, shall we?

Instead of clicking on "Sounds - Setting" on the main settings window, click on "Sounds, AOL" and you'll be taken here:

America Online - AOL Expressions - My Expressions

Please click for fullsize image

I have to admit it, this is pretty fun stuff we're about to delve into. Click the "Change" button and you'll be offered the choice of selecting a sound off your computer, a celebrity sound, adding your name or resetting the sound if it's not the default. Choose Use a Celebrity Voice and you'll see an amazing number of different music, sports and TV/movie stars represented, from Paula Abdul and Darth Vader to Bon Jovi and Christine Aguilere:

America Online - AOL - Celebrity Sounds, including Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff, Sheryl Crow and Jennifer Lopez

Please click for fullsize image

I'll choose Scooby Doo for my celebrity sounds because, well, I like Scooby! You can find him under "Movies/TV" (not sports? Isn't eating scooby snacks an Olympic event?):

America Online - AOL - Celebrity Sounds: Scooby Doo

Please click for fullsize image

As you can see, it's darn easy to pick the sound you'd like to use and click the "install" button to have that replace your current creaky door sound.

However you choose to solve your audio problem with AOL, I hope this will help you make your computer more fun and more responsive to your needs!

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Categorized: Windows Help (Article 6361)
Tagged: america online, aol, aol settings, aol sound preferences
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Comments

Regarding AOL Celebrity Sounds, prior to updating to AOL 9, I used to have the Celebrity Sounds on each of my 3 AOL addresses...(I loved Barry White, Whoopi and Garfield).
Needless to say, when I switched to AOL 9 I have never been able to download those sounds since Error message that pops up indicates something about memory which is foolish...
When I called AOL, their response was even more idiotic since they claim that they do not "run" the AOL celebrity sounds....(go figure)..
Any suggestions..?? I really miss those voices....

Posted by: Les at September 27, 2006 5:57 PM

My AOL celebrity sounds don't work either, since I got the 9.0 version. But I opened a new AOL adress and it has it. What's up with that?

Posted by: Dodie at October 30, 2006 2:10 PM

Long ago, I downloaded nearly all the aol celebrity sounds. The trick was, when you selected the sound from aol's menu it was loaded into the aol sounds folder replacing the sound stored there; so, to save each sound I copied the file to my Windows Media folder and named it uniquely. Thus, now, when I use the AOL Sounds Settings Menu I can download from my PC any of the celebrity sounds. Yeah, that file size error is announced but it's actually not relevant. The sounds play from my media folder not the AOL folder. In fact, I rarely use the AOL Sounds menu, I simply "change the sound scheme" from my control panel. Since I've moved all my .wav files to my Media folder, they're all on the scroll list.

Posted by: Frank at October 30, 2006 2:53 PM

Hi! Thanks for your site! Your advice immediately helped me to do what I needed to do, and I really appreciate it!

Posted by: Joanna at March 3, 2007 8:44 PM

i have a crashed hard drive that I can access from my new hard drive. The old one is right there on the data belt but it is a slave drive. How do i get into my old AOL data and extract e-mails "saved on my pc"? is there a way to do that. I have not found it yet.
thanks a lot for a reply.
sincerely
paul

Posted by: paul at April 9, 2007 2:09 PM

Hi Dave, great answer! I had those annoying squeaky door and door slamming sounds. They came with an email from someone on the message boards (in my case, "Sirtilton". I deleted this name from my address book and my buddies list and the sounds disappeared at the same time.
About the 'Celebrity Voices': thank you for helping me to find them again. The celebrity sounds work on my PC with AOL 9.0 Security Ed (for those who have been questioning this.)

Posted by: ginaHML at August 5, 2007 10:33 AM

Hi Dave,

Re: installing the chosen Celebrity Voice, you need to DOUBLE-CLICK your choice; then you can listen to it, and then install it.

Posted by: ginaHML at August 6, 2007 10:43 PM

i recently switched to a mac from a pc and still use aol as my browser. i have been trying to find the celebrity voices access that i had on the pc but it doesn´t seem available on the mac. is that the case. i have followed all the above steps but neither 'my expressions´nor 'aol sounds' appear in the keyword menu. can you help?

Posted by: blue at August 31, 2007 10:06 AM

Had new hard drive installed, lost it all....trying to get sounds back, nothing! followed the instructions for the 'Celebrity voices', can't hear them either.I want to go into the SOUNDS/CONTROL PANEL, and install sounds to everything, nothing!!! speakers are fine, am all wired in properly, have only installed AOL.9, so far back on the machine....any ideas?

Posted by: Jo at February 10, 2008 9:19 AM

I had no trouble with celebrity sounds on aol 9.0, but cannot get ANYWHERE on the new 10.0 which I hate, hate, hate. Keep getting an error message when I try to go to keyword. The only sound changes are for IM and buddy sounds, which is NOT what I want. This new 10.0 is horrible. Wish I could go back to the 9.0 SE which I liked.

Posted by: Susan at March 23, 2008 6:12 PM

I do not have an AOL toolbar and can not locate settings

Posted by: Francis Pugh at March 27, 2008 11:49 AM

I followed your instructions and I got to the Expressions-Environment window however when I clicked on the change icon the Celeb. line was not highlited so I could not bring up the Celeb sounds page. What am I (computer)doing wrong?

Posted by: Tom at March 28, 2008 1:57 PM

That was the perfect advice. I had been looking for days on how to turn that thing off. Thank you so much.

Posted by: Sarah at May 5, 2008 10:33 AM

There's a cat and a door banging shut and other sounds on my computer that I'd like to eliminate. (Not change my "you've got mail greetings.)

Can you help?

Posted by: Mary Ann Nelson at August 28, 2008 11:23 AM

I see this great post about turning off the AOL sounds. It requires one to go to settings - sound settings. However, AOL 9.1 does not have that "sound settings" option.

Meanwhile, the last two days, I am bombarded with little "doorbell" sounds. I don't use IM and have no IM buddies, though I think I still am an OK guy. Blocked spam messages? Not new emails when I get possibly a half dozen a minute. I don't know what is triggering them so I don't know where to go to turn them off. Inquiring on the subject brings me to you. So, can you help?
Thanks.

Posted by: Bob at September 9, 2008 9:55 AM

Hi, can I download somewhere AOL voices for my MAC (APPLE) ? It is not like on regular PC where I can download it right in aol settings. Thanks Radek

Posted by: Radek at September 16, 2008 2:03 PM

hi, i have aol 9.1. the annoying voice of the american guy saying welcome bugs me. so i removed it from my aol sounds in my aol 9.1 folder/deleted it from my recycle bin/ restarted pc (vista) an guess what? yes the dipstick of a guy comes on again saying welcome. any ideas why hes still there when i removed it from all aol applications, cheers

Posted by: paul at September 28, 2008 10:00 AM

I want the "doorbell" sound for when my buddies sign on to AOL, however, no matter what I do, it doesn't work. How can I change this sound.

Posted by: Joanie at October 20, 2008 11:51 PM

tytyty, i also lost my celebrity sounds and couldn't remember where to find them but thru you got them back. I have installed them again but am having a problem that i think is when i clear cache and do disc clean up they disappear again and defaults come back. This just started happening so I think i must have changed a setting somehow that makes me lose them when i run this and clear cache etc. Any suggestions how i can find out whats wrong? I appreciate any help you can give me.

Posted by: barb at October 22, 2008 2:57 PM

How can I turn off AOL 'Welcome' and 'Mail' sounds using the new 'AOL Destop' software? AOL is unable to help after 4 calls.

Posted by: Hari at October 29, 2008 2:44 PM

What happened to Barry Whites "Good-Bye" on AOL of list of celebrity voices?

Posted by: David at December 14, 2008 5:44 PM

Does HP Pavillion Slimline Desktop with Windows Home Premium, come with Aol Sounds? If so, I can't locate it.

Thanx

Posted by: Everett at August 20, 2009 10:57 PM

Dave, I understand all about the sounds for Welcome, You Have Mail etc but my problem is a pinging sound that appears whenever I clik on any AOL sites, ie: any favorites, to pull up an email, etc. Never had this before. It just started. Does not ping on anything but AOL

Posted by: Jack at October 12, 2009 8:56 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!