For many different reasons, people like to have their computers start up in silence. Perhaps you are in a meeting or classroom, and you have to turn on your iBook or PowerBook. Or if your Mac is running a sound system and you accidentally have the system turned on when your Mac goes "BONG!". In these instances, it would be a good idea to have the Mac be quiet by turning off the startup sound (even if you love that wonderful sound!). There are many ways to go about muting or quieting this sound.

Hold Down the Mute Button: If you have a newer keyboard (like those included with the iMac, eMac, Power Mac G3, G4, and G5s), or a newer Mac laptop (i.e. iBook or PowerBook), you can simply hold down the 'Mute' button on the keyboard's top row of keys while you press the power button, until you see the Apple logo appear on the screen. This will temporarily mute the startup sound.

Turn Down the Volume: If you have any Mac (including the Mac mini), and you know you won't want the startup sound the next time you boot your Mac, try turning the sound on your computer all the way down before you shut it down; the next time you boot up, you won't hear the "BONG!".

For More Control: If you'd like to make permanent changes to the way your computer sounds when it starts up, there are a few good programs to help. StartupSound.prefpane is my favorite - it allows you to change the volume of the startup sound (or mute it completely), independently of the system's volume. There are more programs out there, but none are quite as simple and well-working as StartupSound.

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