Forum Discussion
Windows 10 often plays unfamiliar notification sounds without any prompts
Lately, my computer has been occasionally emitting a notification sound I’ve never heard before, but there are no pop-up windows on the screen, and there are no new messages in the notification center. I’m wondering if Windows has a feature, similar to Android, that lets me see which program recently made the sound or sent the notification so I can identify the source.
3 Replies
Scroll through the Program Events list and click on various events (like "Notification", "System Notification", "Critical Stop") and click the Test button to play their sounds.
We’ve seen this happen on a few Windows systems where background apps or hidden system notifications trigger sounds without showing visible alerts. Checking Notification settings, Event Viewer, startup apps, and sound schemes usually helps narrow it down. Sometimes apps like Outlook, Teams, browser extensions, or sync tools silently generate notifications in the background.
Check app notification permissions
Go to:
Settings > System > Notifications
Look through the app list. Apps that are allowed to send notifications are shown there. You can turn off suspicious apps one by one, or disable notification sounds for specific apps.
Click an app and turn off:
Play a sound when a notification arrives
This is the closest built-in setting to controlling the source.
