Our computer, in addition to being a work tool, is also a fundamental element for leisure, especially when it comes to playing multimedia content. It is likely that some occasion has happened to us that we have left playing music or a video even when we are no longer in front of the PC. This content will continue to play even after the system has crashed. To avoid this we can use a simple and free application such as WinMute , which we will talk about below.
With the system lock function, Windows 10 prevents other users from having access to our computer when we are not in front of it. But this, at no time puts an end to the tasks that are in process. That is why if we have any sound playing, it will continue to be heard until we manually turn it off ourselves. This happens because Windows, by default, does not have any function for it.
Mute the audio in Windows when the system locks up or skips the screensaver
While it is true that there are some applications such as Netflix, that if they are responsible for pausing the audio automatically when they are minimized or when the system crashes, the truth is that it is not something common in the vast majority of multimedia programs. If we work in an office, it can be annoying to leave the music on when we are not in front of the PC, so this tool will help us to solve it in a simple way.
With WinMute we will have a free and open source utility for Windows 10 that is responsible for automatically silencing the audio on our computer when the system is locked . It is compatible with all media player and web browser applications. Although, its mission is not focused on silencing the multimedia players themselves, but rather controls the volume from the system from where it is possible to mute the audio.
Nor can we use this application to pause any video or audio that we are playing while the system is locked, it will simply silence it so we will stop hearing the sound, although the playback will continue its course.
WinMute takes care of silencing the system automatically
Once the application is started, it will not show us any graphical interface on the screen. This happens because it runs directly in the background, staying directly in the system tray. We can access it by right-clicking to open its configuration menu.
This setup menu is completely in English . While the application is running, all system audio will be muted automatically when the screen is locked or the screen saver skips if we have it configured. This is something that we can enable or disable from the panel itself.
How can we check in the panel, by default the mute options are activated when the PC is locked ( “Workstation in locked”) , when the screensaver starts (“Screensaver starts” ) and restoring the volume once it has returned to activate ( “Restore volume when returning” ). The latter is something that we can also disable if we prefer to reactivate the audio ourselves manually. We can also mute (without restoring the volume) when shutting down, suspending or logging out.
Finally, we will find the option “Mute Now” , with it we can silence the system just by pressing it. This can be useful if we don’t have volume control keys on our keyboard, or if we want to quickly mute the audio, such as when an autoplay video suddenly starts playing.
Conclusions.
WinMute is a simple and easy-to-use program that can be useful for those users who work in offices . In this way they can avoid disturbing people around them with music or notifications when they are not in front of the computer. From its icon located in the system tray we can activate or deactivate the different functions of the application with a couple of click of our mouse. The application barely uses our system resources so we can use it on any type of computer, even if they are old. Let’s not look for any more additional options in WinMute, because its objective is clear and unique, so it may well be worth a try.
WinMute free download
As we have mentioned, WinMute is a free and open source application that we can download from this link. It is compatible with Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. This program does not require installation and runs silently in the system tray. We can carry it on any portable storage device such as a hard drive or pendrive and run it on any computer where we are working.
Its latest available version is 1.6.0 corresponding to December 18, 2020 . This means that it has a good support and update policy from the developers and the community.
Delete WinMute settings
When it comes to removing WinMute and all the personal settings that it includes, we must access the Windows 10 Registry, since, although the program is portable, it creates a registry entry. To do this, we must launch the Run command by pressing the Windows keyboard shortcut + r. Once open we write regedit and click on accept. Once in the registry we must navigate to the following path to delete the lx-systems folder.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / lx-systems / WinMute
Later we must exit the application by closing it from the system tray on the taskbar and proceed to eliminate the WinMute.exe and ScreensaverNotify.dll files from our hard drive.
Alternatives to WinMute
If we are looking for a program with which to automatically silence the computer when we are not in front of the screen, we can use this alternative to WinMute.
NirCmd
It is an application that is activated when our computer screen is locked. It automatically takes care of silencing the system. To do this, it will be necessary to create a task in which we must create two triggers, one to silence the sound when the system is locked and the other to reactivate it when it is unlocked again. We can download it for free from its website .