Tips & Tricks

Customize sounds on the Pocket PC

Tired of the same old alarm and notification sounds on your Pocket PC? WAV is a format for storing sound that was developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. It is the default sound standard for Windows PCs and Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. You can import a WAV-formatted sound file, save it in the Pocket PC’s \Windows folder, and use it instead of the default sound.

1. Open the Clock application on your Pocket PC (Start>Settings>System>Clock) and select the Alarms tab (Fig.1).

   Fig. 1: The Alarms screen of the Pocket PC’s Clock application lets you set four notification alarms.

2. To customize the sound for each alarm, tap on the bell-shaped icon on the right-hand side of the screen and the alarm customization dialog box will appear (Fig.2).

   Fig. 2: Select the Clock alarm sound you want from the drop-down menu.

3. Check the box labeled “Play sound” and select the name of the sound (WAV file) from the list in the drop-down menu to the left. This list will contain all default sounds and any WAV files you have copied to the /Windows folder.
4. If you want the alarm to repeat, check the option box labeled “Repeat sound.”

You can also customize the sound used to notify you about different events, including establishing and disconnecting from a connection, receiving an e-mail, and any reminder. Here’s how you do it:

1. From the Start menu go to Settings>Sounds & Notifications and then select the Notifications tab.
2. Select the event you want to customize from the drop down list (Fig.3).

   Fig. 3: The Sounds & Notifications screen lets you customize the sounds used by the Pocket PC to notify you of incoming e-mail, MSN messages, and other events.

3. Select the sound you want used for the notification, from the second drop down list on that page. As with Clock, this list will contain all default sounds and any WAV files you have copied to the /Windows folder.
4. Tap on OK until you leave the Sounds & Notifications dialog box.