When you receive a new message, no sound is played even though you selected the Play a sound option in Advanced Email Options.

This behavior can occur if the registry entry does not contain the full path for the sound file, or no sound is selected for mail notification.

To have Outlook play a sound when new mail arrives:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options, and then click Advanced E-mail Options.
3. Under When new items arrive, click to select the Play a sound check box.
4. Click OK three times to save changes and quit all dialog boxes.

To set the sound file that is associated with new mail notifications:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Sounds.
2. In the Events box, click New Mail Notification.
3. Select a new sound, different from the current selection.
4. Under Preview, click Play.
5. Click OK.

If you want to return to the previous sound, repeat steps 1-5 selecting your previous sound file.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
If the steps in the "Resolution" section of this article are unsuccessful, you may have missing registry information. In this event, you may need to add the appropriate registry entry and then re-associate a sound file with the New Mail Notification event.

Edit the Mail Notification Sound in the Registry

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Regedit, and then click OK.
3. Navigate to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\MailBeep\.current
4. Click .current. In the right pane, double-click (Default) to open the Edit String dialog box.
5. In the Value data box, type the path and file name of the .wav file you want to use, and then click OK.
6. On the Registry menu, click Exit, and then restart the computer.

Verify Sound Association

To verify that the sound event is associated with "New Mail Notification" functions:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Sounds.
2. In the Events box, click New Mail Notification. The sound event should have a speaker icon beside it to indicate that this event is enabled and associated with a valid .wav file.
3. Under Preview, click the Play button.
4. Click OK.