How to get mechanical keyboard sounds on any keyboard in Windows 11

What Windows can do by itself

• The on-screen touch keyboard can click. In Settings > Time & language > Typing > Touch keyboard, Play key sounds as I type applies only to the on-screen keyboard, not a physical one.
• There's no setting for a physical keyboard. Windows doesn't play a sound for each key on a real keyboard.

Bottom line: for key sounds on your actual keyboard, you need an app.

Before you install a keyboard-sound app: is it safe?

To pick a sound, an app has to know a key was pressed. That's why people ask whether these apps are keyloggers. Check these before you install one:

• It says plainly that it never stores or sends what you type.
• It works offline, with no account.
• It mutes itself on calls, so your microphone doesn't pick up the clicks.
• It has a mute hotkey that works in any program.
• It installs for your user only, with no driver and no admin rights.

Doing it with Solace Clack

Disclosure: Solace Clack is our product. SolaceSoftware makes and sells it.

Solace Clack sits in the tray and plays a keystroke sound in every program. Per its product page:

• 8 built-in sound profiles, all generated by our own sound engine: Thock, Click, Cream, Type, Pebble, Marble, Snap and Hush. Or use your own folder of .wav files. A variation slider adds small changes in pitch and level, and key-release and mouse-click sounds have their own switches.
• Sound placed left or right by key position (best on headphones). Space, Enter and Backspace sound deeper, and holding a key down plays one sound, not a stream.
• It knows when to be quiet. It pauses when your microphone is in use, when a listed game with anti-cheat protection is running, or when a program you list is in front. Ctrl+Alt+K mutes it from any program.
• It never records, saves or sends what you type. It only sees which key was pressed, to pick a sound, and it never goes online.

Limits, stated plainly: Windows doesn't let it hear keys while a program running as administrator is in front, or on the sign-in and admin-prompt screens. We haven't yet tested the sound feel, headphone panning, call mute or anti-cheat pause on a real PC, so judge the sound for yourself.

Before you buy: you need Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime (built into Windows 11 and current Windows 10) for the Settings window. It's a per-user installer of about 2 MB, with no administrator rights. It plays through the standard Windows audio system and installs no driver. The download is unsigned, so on first launch click More info > Run anyway, then check the ZIP against the SHA-256 on the product page.

Price: $4.59 once, with 12 months of best-effort email support. No subscription. There's no free trial for Solace Clack.

Which route?

• You type on the on-screen keyboard: turn on its key sounds in Settings.
• You want key sounds on a real keyboard, privately and offline: use an app that never stores what you type.

Get Solace Clack, $4.59 once. Questions before you buy: solacesoftware@smilingface.cloud.