Prevent WebBrowser control from beeping on loading in winforms

Question

I am using the WebBrowser control in window forms app. The application is scraping a website periodically (using a timer) and then displaying a summarized version in the WebBrowser. I load the WebBrowser with a string using its DocumentText property.

All works very well except that when I load the WebBrowser it beeps, not the first time but on subsequent loads. I don't know why it beeps, perhaps there is something not quite to spec with the html. But it looks ok and I would like it not to beep even if the WebBrowser is spotting an error.

How can I prevent the WebBrowser from beeping?

have you used `System.Console.Beep()` anywhere in your project ?? — Vivek S., Jun 28 '14 at 09:59
IE likes to "click", not "beep". I guess a sound recording would be appropriate documentation with this question. — Hans Passant, Jun 29 '14 at 01:06
@hector Strangely, I did have a System.Console.Beep() in the project initially but not at the time of writing the question. — crackles, Jun 29 '14 at 01:39
@Hans You are correct. It sounds exactly the same as the IE click, which I think (for IE 11 at least) is disabled by default. — crackles, Jun 29 '14 at 02:06
Once @hans pointed out it was a click rather than a beep I was much more successful with google searches. The solution that others have used is to use CoInternetSetFeatureEnabled (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/393166/how-to-disable-click-sound-in-webbrowser-control) but I could not get it to work for me (IE 11). Instead of using the WebBrowser control I am going to parse the html and extract the info I need and display it in a grid. :( — crackles, Jun 29 '14 at 23:40

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 29 '14 at 01:00

Try creating your own WebBrowser control as shown below. SafeWebBrowser is a WebBrowser-derived Control that does NOT allow scripts or activeX controls to execute. It also prevents the WebBrowser's context menu from displaying. Not sure if this will stop the beeping, but give it a try.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;

/// <summary>
/// Stole code from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7608550/implement-idispatchinvoke-to-be-called-by-a-webbrowser-control
/// </summary>
public class SafeWebBrowser : WebBrowser
{
    private const int DISPID_AMBIENT_DLCONTROL = -5512;
    private int _downloadControlFlags;

    protected override void OnHandleCreated( EventArgs e )
    {
        base.OnHandleCreated( e );

        // Here is where the magic happens.
        // Disable java, scripts, activeX controls, etc.
        //

        DownloadControlFlags = ( int )(
            WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.NO_JAVA
            | WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.NO_BEHAVIORS
            | WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.NO_DLACTIVEXCTLS
            | WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.NO_RUNACTIVEXCTLS
            | WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.NO_SCRIPTS
            | WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.PRAGMA_NO_CACHE
            | WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.SILENT
            | WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags.DLIMAGES
        );

        // Disable the context menu.
        //

        this.IsWebBrowserContextMenuEnabled = false;
    }

    // we want our site class, not the default one
    protected override WebBrowserSiteBase CreateWebBrowserSiteBase()
    {
        return new MyWebBrowserSite( this );
    }

    [DispId( DISPID_AMBIENT_DLCONTROL )]
    private int DownloadControlFlags
    {
        get
        {
            return _downloadControlFlags;
        }
        set
        {
            if ( _downloadControlFlags == value )
                return;

            _downloadControlFlags = value;
            IOleControl ctl = ( IOleControl )ActiveXInstance;
            ctl.OnAmbientPropertyChange( DISPID_AMBIENT_DLCONTROL );
        }
    }

    private class MyWebBrowserSite : WebBrowserSite, IReflect
    {
        private Dictionary<int, PropertyInfo> _dispidCache;
        private SafeWebBrowser _host;

        public MyWebBrowserSite( SafeWebBrowser host )
            : base( host )
        {
            _host = host;
        }

        object IReflect.InvokeMember( string name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, object target, object[] args, ParameterModifier[] modifiers, CultureInfo culture, string[] namedParameters )
        {
            object ret = null;
            // Check direct IDispatch call using a dispid (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/de3dhzwy.aspx)
            const string dispidToken = "[DISPID=";
            if ( name.StartsWith( dispidToken ) )
            {
                int dispid = int.Parse( name.Substring( dispidToken.Length, name.Length - dispidToken.Length - 1 ) );
                if ( _dispidCache == null )
                {
                    // WebBrowser has many properties, so we build a dispid cache on it
                    _dispidCache = new Dictionary<int, PropertyInfo>();
                    foreach ( PropertyInfo pi in _host.GetType().GetProperties( BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance ) )
                    {
                        if ( ( !pi.CanRead ) || ( pi.GetIndexParameters().Length > 0 ) )
                            continue;

                        object[] atts = pi.GetCustomAttributes( typeof( DispIdAttribute ), true );
                        if ( ( atts != null ) && ( atts.Length > 0 ) )
                        {
                            DispIdAttribute da = ( DispIdAttribute )atts[ 0 ];
                            _dispidCache[ da.Value ] = pi;
                        }
                    }
                }

                PropertyInfo property;
                if ( _dispidCache.TryGetValue( dispid, out property ) )
                {
                    ret = property.GetValue( _host, null );
                }
            }
            return ret;
        }

        FieldInfo[] IReflect.GetFields( BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            return GetType().GetFields( bindingAttr );
        }

        MethodInfo[] IReflect.GetMethods( BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            return GetType().GetMethods( bindingAttr );
        }

        PropertyInfo[] IReflect.GetProperties( BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            return GetType().GetProperties( bindingAttr );
        }

        FieldInfo IReflect.GetField( string name, BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        MemberInfo[] IReflect.GetMember( string name, BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        MemberInfo[] IReflect.GetMembers( BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        MethodInfo IReflect.GetMethod( string name, BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        MethodInfo IReflect.GetMethod( string name, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Type[] types, ParameterModifier[] modifiers )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        PropertyInfo IReflect.GetProperty( string name, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Type returnType, Type[] types, ParameterModifier[] modifiers )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        PropertyInfo IReflect.GetProperty( string name, BindingFlags bindingAttr )
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        Type IReflect.UnderlyingSystemType
        {
            get { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        }
    }

    [ComImport, InterfaceType( ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown ), Guid( "B196B288-BAB4-101A-B69C-00AA00341D07" )]
    private interface IOleControl
    {
        void Reserved0();
        void Reserved1();
        void OnAmbientPropertyChange( int dispID );
        void Reserved2();
    }

    [Flags]
    enum WebBrowserDownloadControlFlags : uint
    {
        DLIMAGES = 0x00000010,
        VIDEOS = 0x00000020,
        BGSOUNDS = 0x00000040,
        NO_SCRIPTS = 0x00000080,
        NO_JAVA = 0x00000100,
        NO_RUNACTIVEXCTLS = 0x00000200,
        NO_DLACTIVEXCTLS = 0x00000400,
        DOWNLOADONLY = 0x00000800,
        NO_FRAMEDOWNLOAD = 0x00001000,
        RESYNCHRONIZE = 0x00002000,
        PRAGMA_NO_CACHE = 0x00004000,
        NO_BEHAVIORS = 0x00008000,
        NO_METACHARSET = 0x00010000,
        URL_ENCODING_DISABLE_UTF8 = 0x00020000,
        URL_ENCODING_ENABLE_UTF8 = 0x00040000,
        NOFRAMES = 0x00080000,
        FORCEOFFLINE = 0x10000000,
        NO_CLIENTPULL = 0x20000000,
        SILENT = 0x40000000,
        OFFLINEIFNOTCONNECTED = 0x80000000,
        OFFLINE = OFFLINEIFNOTCONNECTED,
    }
}

Prevent WebBrowser control from beeping on loading in winforms

1 Answers1