Mac owners are generally the happiest computer owners to be found, but if there is one irritation with OS X that riles more than anything else, it is the startup sound. Psst is a free application that can be used to silence your Mac’s startup sound with a minimum of fuss.

To some people, having your computer play a sound when it is switched on may seem like something very minor, but it can become an issue if you want to turn your computer on at night, or don’t want to draw attention to yourself.

Psst works by muting the volume of your Mac at shutdown so when you next switch on, no sound can be heard. As you are likely to want to hear other sounds in everyday use, the volume is automatically unmated to your preferred level.

Psst can also be used configured to simply lower the volume of the startup sound. This is an ideal option if you do not find the sound irritating, but find that it is a little on the loud side.

After dragging the application to your Applications folder, launch Psst and use the volume slider to indicate how loud, or quiet, the startup sound should be. That’s all there is to it. The applicaion is not guaranteed to work with every Mac, but if the startup sound is the bane of your life, it is certainly worth checking out.