Editor’s note: The following review is part of Macworld’s GemFest 2012 series. Every weekday from mid June through mid August, the Macworld staff will use the Mac Gems blog to briefly cover a favorite free or low-cost program. Visit the Mac Gems homepage for a list of past Mac Gems.

Launch the app and your Mac’s external speakers are immediately muted. Better yet, they remain muted, even if you launch another application, or if your headphones come unplugged. If you do have headphones plugged in, however, that volume is maintained and can be freely adjusted.

An icon floats on your desktop and allows you to toggle BeQuiet on or off. Alternatively, you can hide the desktop icon completely and keep BeQuiet running in the background, and turn it on or off via a drop down menu in the menu bar.

You can also password protect BeQuiet so that it cannot be disabled without said password. This would be a useful feature for computer labs in schools, libraries, or other public places where computers are shared and a quiet environment is necessary.

BeQuiet’s easy functionality make it a good choice for anyone who needs to ensure their computer speakers stay quiet for any length of time.

[Karissa Bell is a San Francisco-based freelance writer. Follow her on Twitter.]

Want to stay up to date with the latest Gems? Sign up for the Mac Gems newsletter for a weekly email summary of Gems reviews sent directly to your Inbox. You can also follow Mac Gems on Twitter.