{"id":324,"date":"2010-08-19T18:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/us111.siteground.us\/~tlhouse0\/ptfbpro.com\/automate\/?p=324"},"modified":"2012-06-13T21:55:47","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T21:55:47","slug":"how-to-mute-the-sound-in-windows-by-hotkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ptfbpro.com\/automate\/how-to-mute-the-sound-in-windows-by-hotkey\/","title":{"rendered":"How to mute the sound in Windows by hotkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many modern keyboards have a special key for muting\/unmuting the sound in Windows, but if yours doesn’t, you can create the next best thing with a PTFB Pro macro and a couple of lines of script. Here’s how to go about it.<\/p>\n

Stage 1 – create mute\/unmute script<\/em><\/p>\n

The first stage is to create a little “.vbs” script that will toggle the sound on\/off. Just open up Notepad (or your favorite text editor) and paste in the following two lines of text:<\/p>\n

Set oShell = CreateObject(\"WScript.Shell\")<\/code>
\n oShell.SendKeys(chr(&hAD))<\/code><\/p>\n

Save the file somewhere convenient, with the .vbs extension. For example, I called mine “Mute.vbs” and popped it in my documents folder. Double-click it a couple of times just to make sure it works and you haven’t made a typo anywhere.<\/p>\n

Stage 2 – create PTFB Pro macro and bind to hotkey<\/em><\/p>\n

OK, now we’ve got our script, we’re going to create a PTFB Pro macro to run it, and bind that macro to a hotkey.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create a new screen based macro and stop recording immediately by hitting the Pause\/Break key.<\/li>\n
  2. Open the new macro for editing. On the General page, give it a meaningful name (e.g. “Mute”).<\/li>\n
  3. Switch to the Triggers page and turn off “Trigger spontaneously”. Now tick “Hotkey” and choose a memorable hotkey combination for the mute function. CTRL + SHIFT + M sounded good to me.<\/li>\n
  4. Switch to the Editing page. Clear out any existing recorded actions and add just a single “Run Executable” item. For the command line, type in “cscript” followed by a space, followed by the full path to the vbs file you created earlier. If the path contgains spaces, remember to surround it with double quotes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"MuteCmdLine\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    That’s it. Your chosen hotkey will now execute the vbs file, toggling Windows audio between its muted and unmuted states.<\/p>\n

    Find out more about boosting your productivity with autoclicks and macros.<\/a>
    \n    CLICK HERE to download a free 30 day trial, no strings attached<\/a>. If you aren’t entirely happy simply uninstall!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Many modern keyboards have a special key for muting\/unmuting the sound in Windows, but if yours doesn’t, you can create the next best thing with a PTFB Pro macro and Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automation-power-users"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t