How to Mute the Startup Sound on a Mac

The familiar startup sound on a Mac can be music to your ears one day, and a nuisance the next. If you're in a quiet environment like a library or don't want to disturb your fellow coffee shop patrons, that sound is at best an annoyance. There are a couple of ways to mute the sound on startup depending on what kind of Apple Macintosh computer you have. Also, a small, free application can help you control the sound from your Mac's System Preferences. Here are the ways to mute that sound.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Apple Macintosh Computer running OS 10.4+
• Startupsound.prefpane (free download)

How to Temporarily Stop the Startup Sound

1. Boot up your Macintosh computer.
2. Turn the volume all the way down once you've booted up, so when you reboot you shouldn't hear the sound.
3. Or you can hold down the "Mute" key on the keyboard as you push the power button on your computer. The Mute key on a Mac is usually at the top row and looks like a speaker.

How to Kill the Startup Sound For Good (it's reversible)

4. Download StartupSound.prefpane (see link in Resources below).
5. Double-click the "StartupSoundPrefPane11b2.dmg" that you just downloaded. The name may vary slightly based on the version available and will be on your Desktop or wherever downloaded files usually go on your Macintosh computer.
6. Install StartupSoundPrefPane.pkg that you've downloaded to start the installation by double-clicking its icon.
7. Keep clicking "Continue" until the program finally says StartupSound.prefpane has been installed. Don't forget to click "Agree" when the Terms of Service screen pops up, and you may have to enter your account password to authorize the installation.
8. Launch Mac OS X's "System Preferences" by clicking on the Apple logo in the top left and selecting "System Preferences."
9. Click on "Startup Sound" in the "Other" area of the "System Preferences" window.
10. Click the checkbox next to the word "Mute" or move the slider all the way down to the left to turn the startup sound/sound. You can always turn it back on by unchecking the "Mute" checkbox or moving the slider back to the right.