Enabling Sound Acceleration

Now that we've enabled acceleration for our Graphics card and DirectX, we want to enable the audio, read on!

If you are using Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, move on to the next step as the Windows Audio Service is already enabled. For other editions, read on. Go to Start -> Run -> and type Services.msc followed by enter. The Services window will appear, scroll down until you find "Windows Audio". Double click on Windows Audio -> and change the startup type to Automatic -> then Apply -> Start -> OK

Lastly, we will need to go back into DirectX Diagnostics. Click on Start -> Run -> and type dxdiag followed by enter. This time, go to the Sound tab and move the slider on "Hardware Sound Acceleration Level" to Full Acceleration.

Great! We have sound enabled, now go and grab a copy of Winamp and play some music to soothe yourself! :-)

Not forgetting, if you have a SB Live! card like I do, you should grab the LiveDrvUni-Pack for Win2K/XP dated 10th March 2003. There is absolutely no need to extract and install the drivers manually, because the setup program works just fine on Windows Server 2003!

What's next? Visual Styles on Windows Server 2003! Let's move on to the next section!

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