It’s not bad in Firefox, but the Mouseclick sound in IE is to the point of annoying. I have a menu that might require a bit of clicking, and I was wondering if there was a javascript or other command to disable the click-noise feedback when the person clicks on a certain link or my entire page?
Possible?
Ryan
??
The clicking mouse is hardware-derived as far as I know. I suppose that some individual Web sites might have sound files activated when a link is active, for example, but I’ve never heard of a browser having its own mouse sound.
The option that turns that on and off is in your operating system sound settings.
Actually it isn’t so a mouseclick sound, as much as an IE/Windows Explorer opening a link sound. Yes it is annoying.
You can disable it by going into your Windows Control Panel and opening the “Sounds and Audio Devices” properties. On the “Sounds” tab go to “Program events” and scroll down until you find “Start Navigation.” Once you find this sound setting change its sound to “(None)”.
Note that these instructions for WinXP and things might have changed slightly in Windows Vista/7 so you might have to adjust accordingly but the basics will be the same.
Lord, I never thought about the system sounds. Duh.
Thanks for the feedback.
I only noticed it because Firefox does not make the “click” sound when a page opens or a link gets clicked, but IE does. Now that i’m testing with IE, I’m realizing how annoying it is.
Was praying that javascript found a way to make IE quiet on the click and loads like Firefox is.
Cheers
Ryan
Since it’s a system sound, it can’t (and shouldn’t) be changed by a website. While the sound is annoying to most people (who consequently turns it off), some people benefit from it. Specifically, the sound is intended to signal to a user on a slow connection and system that the link has been clicked, so that it isn’t clicked again.
IE is the only browser that makes the sound and that’s because IE is a part of the operating system whereas other browsers are separate applications.
Interestingly enough, there is one way you can override the sound, however this requires placing another sound to play during the onclick event in it’s place. The Windows OS has a methodology that the control panel sounds will function as normal, however if (in the case of IE) another sound plays during the onclick event, that will take priority and Windows will mute the system default sound in it’s place (though this only occurs for modern versions like Vista and Win7 where sound management works on a per-application basis). Otherwise, as others have said, your stuck with users having to manually disable it. 
I must be the only one who actually misses that clicky sound, it was sometimes reassuring to know the link had been clicked
I don’t surf with IE, but I use it for saved/test .html files on my OS. I like hearing the click, but not loud, so I have the volume set very low. It works for me. As said this isn’t something a page should dictate, it’s the user’s preference. I imagine there’s quite a few that are clueless as to how to customize it. But I also imagine that those in a great enough need of changing it eventually find out how.
I don’t know why Microsoft included it, it drove me to distraction… perhaps it’s for the visually impaired, it should be disabled by default IMO. 
I used to use it too for that simple purpose of confirming that the link was clicked. I guess that when I stopped using IE I just forgot about it entirely.
I surf with Opera and Firefox. One thing for certain, an audible click would keep me from getting so many
This forum requires that you wait 10 seconds between searches. Please try again in ## seconds.
here at SitePoint
Replace it with a clip that announces “Use Firefox”
I am guessing that just using a sound file that does not have any sound in it will suppress the default click? Interesting!
Or you could go with the best of both worlds… a voice recording saying “Use Firefox” 
You can attach sounds to events in Opera if you like. Tools / Preferences / Advanced / Notifications. Add a sound for “Follow link”.
The click sound is actually one of the only things I like about IE.
Still, it’s mostly irrelevant - the physical spring in my logitech mouse is loud enough to give feedback.
I knew that there were some people who used the click, but I’m surprised that there are so many, including many web professionals. This just goes to show that one should never have preconceptions about user behavior.
IE, the application, is not part of the operating system and thousands of other applications use system sounds. If Firefox wanted to play the system’s start navigation sound when a link was clicked, they could do so. I recently disabled that system sound myself, not because of IE, but because of another application that was using it… and I find the sound annoying like others here.
