How to play system sounds in C#

.NET Framework allows playing system sounds using a simple code:

SystemSounds.[Type].Play(); 

But the SystemSounds class supports only 5 types of sound notifications: Asterisk, Beep, Exclamation, Hand, Question.

There is no easy way to play other standard sounds like LowBatteryAlarm, DeviceConnect, DeviceDisconnect, MailBeep, and others from the Windows Sound Scheme.

We in BgRnD are using following function in our C# projects:

public void PlaySystemSound(string RegistryName)
{
    string fileName = "";

    RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(String.Format(@"AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\{0}\.Current", RegistryName), false);
    try
    {
        fileName = (string)key.GetValue("", fileName);
    }
    finally
    {
        key.Close();
    }

    if (!File.Exists(fileName)) return;

    SoundPlayer player = new SoundPlayer(fileName);
    try
    {
        player.Play();
    }
    finally
    {
        player.Dispose();
    }
}

The function plays the sound resource specified by the RegistryName parameter. The set of possible names you can find in the System Registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default path.

Windows Sounds in the System Registry
Screenshot of Registry Editor to understand where to take Registry Names of system sounds.

You can freely use (copy and paste) this function into any of your projects.

If you still have any programming questions about playing the Windows sound notifications, feel free to ask.

Research and Destroy!

"Research and Destroy" is a computer geek joke. It is a misrepresentation of Research and Development (aka R&D) term into something scary and funny.

There is a grain of truth in every joke! A small mistake in software development process, especially for public products, could destroys lots of things at once!

BTW, BgRnD abbreviation contains the similar meaning 🙂

States List for USA and Canada

Same to the countries list we are publishing the list of USA and Canadian states.

States list

Hint: Click on list, press Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+C to copy the list.

ISO 3166 Country Names

Every time programmers create the user panel in some program or website they have to search for a list of countries for dropdown or listview control. It is annoying…

So we’ve decided to palace such list in a public place. This is ISO 3166 Country Name list. You can freely use it in own projects.

Country Names

Hint: Click on list, press Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+C to copy the list.