Beeping in DOS

Peter Geddes

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May 27, 2001, 7:27:23 AM5/27/01

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I wondered if anyone could tell me how to make a batch file beep. I've
tried CTRL P CTRL G, but this doesn't work.

This will be entered in either DOS Edit or Notepad

TIA

PS - This is resent because my system clock was set to the wrong date!!

Peter Geddes

Outsider

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May 27, 2001, 7:36:24 AM5/27/01

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The beep character is the seventh ASCII character and is one of the
'control' characters. In the DOS editor, the beep character can be
obtained by pressing [Ctrl+[P][G]].

:: beep.bat (beeps once)
@ECHO off
ECHO [Ctrl+[P][G]]
::

This is the same batch created at prompt using redirection. Notice that the
[P] is not required here, and the beep character will appear in beep.bat.

C:\BAT>ECHO @ECHO OFF > beep.bat
C:\BAT>ECHO ECHO [Ctrl+[G]] >> beep.bat

--
Outsider, HB, BFP
MS-DOS 6.22, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Netscape Navigator 4.08
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it
from religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal

William Allen

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May 27, 2001, 7:52:56 AM5/27/01

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Peter Geddes wrote in message

> I wondered if anyone could tell me how to make a batch file beep. I've
> tried CTRL P CTRL G, but this doesn't work.
>
> This will be entered in either DOS Edit or Notepad

You can enter it directly in the file, usually [Alt+[7]] with
[7] on the number keypad. Syntax varies slightly with particular
editor. May require [Alt+ [0] [0] [0] [7]] with NumLock ON, or Ctrl-P prefix.

Or, it's quite simple to generate it with debug, thus:

::====BEEP.BAT
@ECHO OFF
:: Make an beep character in environment variable BEEP
ECHO e100'SET %%1='7 0d 0a>%TEMP%.\BEEP.BAT
FOR %%F IN (rcx a w q) DO ECHO %%F>>%TEMP%.\BEEP.BAT
TYPE %TEMP%.\BEEP.BAT | debug %TEMP%.\BEEP.BAT>NUL
CALL %TEMP%.\BEEP.BAT BEEP
DEL %TEMP%.\BEEP.BAT

:: Instantiate %BEEP% in a ECHO to beep
ECHO. This is a beep %BEEP%
SET BEEP=
::====

This is just a cut-and-paste search-and-replace operation on
the COLOUR.BAT I've just posted, by the way<G>.

--
William Allen

Message has been deleted

Peter Geddes

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May 27, 2001, 5:59:41 PM5/27/01

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Thanks for the tips. The batch files sent give a Windows Beep (chimes.wav)
, not a BIOS like beep.

TIA's

Peter Geddes

William Allen

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May 28, 2001, 3:20:56 AM5/28/01

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Peter Geddes wrote in message

...snip

> The batch files sent give a Windows Beep

> (chimes.wav), not a BIOS like beep.

AFAIK, in a Windows DOS box, the ASCII=7 character,
which is what I generated, activates the "Default" sound
if you have configured one.

If you don't have one set, as I usually don't, the ASCII=7
character activates a BIOS-like beep.

Start, Settings, Control Panel, Sounds Applet, "Default Sound"
and set it to what you please, or remove the assignment
altogether to hear the BIOS beep.

I assume you have the Default Sound set to CHIMES.WAV.

Since the default sound is usually stored in the registry here:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\.Default\.current]
@="C:\\PathTo\\FileWithSound.WAV"

you could probably change it dynamically in a batch script
if you needed the script to use a different sound (and reset
it as the script ends).

--
William Allen