This brings back some memories, but not the ones everyone else seems to have: I'd spent several hours (at least) looking at MSDN docs, various DLLs on my system

This brings back some memories, but not the ones everyone else seems to have: I'd spent several hours (at least) looking at MSDN docs, various DLLs on my system, and the contents of the Windows SDK trying to figure out how to get an old fashioned beep. I finally ended up on Larry's blog and, as it seemed like he'd know how it all worked, asked him. I was quite pleasantly surprised by his response, as I wasn't really expecting an answer, never mind such an in-depth blog post the next day.