Disable clicking sound in Windows Explorer & Internet Explorer

Are you irritated by the clicking sound while navigating in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer (IE)? If so, this Techbit is for you. Are you annoyed about bad things happening to good people? To make matters worse, are you bothered about good things happening to bad people? Well, neither can this Techbit be of help nor can I comprehend the rationale. Are you miffed at why the subject of this Techbit is not yet covered? Here we go, I can help you here and jump right into the topic!

Windows XP

• Click Start
• Click "Control Panel"
• Click "Sounds and Audio Devices"
• Click the Sounds tab
• Scroll down the list under Program Events
• Under the Windows Explorer section, highlight Start Navigation
• Under the Sounds box, select (None) > OK, close Control Panel

Windows 7

• Click Start
• Click "Control Panel"
• Click "Hardware and Sound"
• Under Sound, Click "Change system sounds"
• Scroll down the list under "Program Events"
• Under the Windows Explorer section, highlight "Start Navigation"
• Under the Sounds box, select "(None)"
• Click OK
• Close "Control Panel"

That should shut it!

Note that you would normally need to do this only once. That is unless the OS is re-installed on your computer after which the defaults would have to be changed again.

How to find USB 3.0 ports?

I keep hearing people say that they get good transfer speeds while dealing with the content stored in their USB devices from their computers "sometimes" and do not in the other unfortunate times. Until a while ago, I may also be counted among such. Even though I was guessing that it had to be related to the ports or USB 3.0 vs 2.0, I did not bother to find out the details behind. Now is the time to unlock what those "sometimes" are!

USB 3.0 offers betters speeds over 2.0. Obvious but this is a point to be noted. Those "sometimes" might have been those occasions when the USB device is plugged into the computer through a USB 3.0 enabled port. The question that comes next is how do you determine if a USB port on your computer (desktop or laptop) or your USB device/cable can support 3.0 or 2.0.

Following are few ways to determine if the USB is 3.0 or 2.0:

1. Check if there is "SS" symbol on the port or the cable.
   
   
   
   
   
   If so, then the port or the cable is 3.0 enabled.
   
   
2. Check if there is blue color inside the port or on the cable.
   
   
   
   USB 3.0 ports are blue colored and USB 2.0 ports are grey although it may not be the case always.
   
   
3. Another phenomenon seen commonly in the case of laptops and worth noting is that USB 3.0 ports are found on the left side.
   
   
4. Follow the below procedure:
   
   
   • Right-click on "Computer" icon
   • Select "Manage"
   • Select "Device Manager"
   • Look under "Universal Serial Bus controllers"
   
   If you see entries with "USB 3.0" text, it means you have USB 3.0 enabled ports on your computer. Note that this does not determine which of the ports is 3.0 and which not though.

In the process of figuring out, I've found an article providing a nice summary of different kinds of ports at http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/pc-ports-explained-get-to-know-the-back-of-your-computer-2/.