How do I change the windows error sound for windows terminal to something different?

Question

Okay, so you know when you press backspace on an empty line in windows terminal, it makes that annoying error sound? How do I change the sound the something else? Thanks.

Answer 1

Windows Terminal 1.13 and later

Windows Terminal (err, now renamed just "Terminal") 1.13 and later have added an option to set the bell sound directly via the profile.bellSound setting. It can set to a single audio file or an array. If set to multiple audio files, Terminal will choose one at random for the beep/bell each time it is triggered.

You can also disable the bell entirely or change it to a visual bell in the latest release of Windows Terminal.

You can refer to the docs and/or @theking2's answer for more details.

Previous answer for older versions of Windows Terminal

Outdated: The original answer below from (pre-October 2022) was left in for users of older versions, but given the amount of time that has now passed, it's probably not useful at this point. Please read the first section above.

The Windows Terminal bell is mapped to the currently assigned Windows "Critical Stop" sound. To change the sound you hear for the Windows Terminal Bell, you can change the sound (the .wav file) which is mapped to "Critical Stop".

Yes, that .wav file can be anywhere on your computer. To start, press the Windows key or click the Windows "Start" menu, and start typing "change system sounds". You'll see that entry come up in the menu before you even complete typing it all the way:

From the resulting panel:

Select the "Critical Stop" sound, and then "Browse". As mentioned, you can browse to any .wav file on your PC.

Answer 2

Specifically for Ubuntu users of the Win10 terminal, it's possible to turn off the audible and activate the Linux-friendly blinking.

In the Win10 terminal go to Settings > Ubuntu > Advanced > Flash window

Answer 3

To change the profile.bellSound as mentioned in @NotTheDr01ds answer, you'll need to edit your Windows Terminal settings.json as covered in the docs:

1. Open Windows Terminal

2. Open the Settings (from the drop down just after the + in the tab bar, or press Ctrl+,)

3. Click ⚙️ Open JSON file at the bottom left

4. Navigate to "profiles": and "defaults":

5. Add a comma (,) to the last line within the { }

6. Add a new line immediately below:

   "bellSound": C:\\Windows\\Media\\Windows Information Bar.wav"
   

7. Save the file

Example

My settings.json looks like this at about that point:

// ... (other settings)
"profiles": 
{
    "defaults": 
    {
        "font": 
        {
            "size": 8.0
        },
        "bellSound": "C:\\Windows\\Media\\Windows Information Bar.wav",
        "bellStyle": "audible"
    },


// ... (other settings)

The line that starts with "bellStyle": can be ommited and can be used to set other notification styles like task bar or window flashing both or to turn off notification completely.

This changes the default sound for all profiles. If desired, you can also change/override the sound for a single profile.

The sound

Windows Information Bar.wav sounds just short and distinctive enough for my taste, but you might want to change it to something else from the Windows media folder. Remember to replace single \ with double \\.