I never was a huge fan of the Windows startup or shutdown sounds, which is why I was so happy they were removed in Windows 8. However, if you want to have your own custom startup and shutdown sounds in Windows, it’s possible. In Windows XP, it’s a piece of cake. /atmosphere-vst-free-download.html.

Windows 10 makes it more difficult to change the startup sound than previous versions of Windows. This can be a pain, because let’s face it – what you hear when you first power up your computer is important. The sites listed below offer WAV files in many categories including movies, TV, humor, computer event sounds, E-mail WAVs, sound effects, WAV loops, Flash animation WAV files, and more. If you're looking for sounds in other formats go to TheFreeSite.com's Free Sounds main page.

In Windows 7, you have to use a third-party program to change the startup sound because if you try via the Control Panel, it doesn’t do anything.

In Windows 8, it gets worse if you miss your beloved startup sound because it’s completely disabled, so you first have to enable it in the registry. After that, you have to run the third-party program and even after that, you have to shutdown and restart the computer in a certain way in order to actually hear the sound.

I’ll go through each operating system below to make it as easy as possible depending on your OS. Before we get into the details, you will first want to find an appropriate audio file in WAV format. If you have an MP3, you can convert it to WAV format easily using a free online tool like Media.io. Try to keep the file size small, less than 1 MB if possible.

Windows XP Startup Sound

There are two ways to go about changing the startup and other sounds in Windows XP: simple drag and drop into the appropriate folder or using the Control Panel. Let’s start with copying the audio files to the sounds directory.

Step 1: Rename each WAV file to Windows XP Startup.wav and Windows XP Shutdown.wav respectively.

Step 2: Now go ahead and navigate to the folder with the current startup and shutdown Windows sounds, which is C:WindowsMedia. Here you will find the files Windows XP Startup.wav and Windows XP Shutdown.wav along with a bunch of other Windows sounds.

Go ahead and move the two original files from the Media folder to some other backup folder. This is just in case the two WAV files you created do not work and you want to revert back to the original sound.

Step 3: Now copy the two renamed files to the C:WindowsMedia folder and restart your computer! You should now hear the new audio play rather than the default sounds.

If you don’t like some of the other default Windows sounds, you can change them also in the same manner. Just create a file that has the exact same name as the one in the Media folder and replace it.

The second method is to go to Control Panel and click on Sounds and Audio Devices. Click on the Sounds tab and then click on Start Windows in the list box.

Go ahead and click on the Browse button and simply choose the replacement WAV file. You can follow this same procedure in Windows 7, but for some reason it doesn’t actually change the startup sound.

Windows 7 Startup Sound

In Windows 7, you have to rely on the third-party program called Startup Sound Changer. Just download it and run it. Thankfully, it doesn’t install anything on your system, so you can just delete it once you are finished.

The program is very easy to use. Click Play to hear the current startup sound, Replace to change the startup sound and Restore to revert back to the original startup sound.

The only other thing you have to check a setting under Sound in Control Panel. Click on the Sounds tab and make sure the Play Windows Startup sound box is checked.

Once you do that, you should hear your new startup sound when you log onto Windows. Note that you can still use the Sound Control Panel settings to change other sounds like shown for Windows XP. For example, you can click on Windows Logoff, click on Browse and pick a different WAV file. This will work just fine.

Windows 8 Startup Sound

Windows 8 is a different beast altogether and pretty much all the startup and shutdown sounds are disabled by default. This is because Windows 8 sports a new fast boot (hybrid boot) that cuts down on the boot time significantly. There are two problems with Windows 8:

1. The sounds are disabled and have to be enabled in the registry.

2. Even if you enable the sounds, the fast boot procedure bypasses all sounds. In order to hear the sounds, you have to perform a full shutdown of your system. Even performing a restart will result in the sounds not playing.

Obviously, this is quite annoying and I’m pretty sure 99% of people just use Windows 8 without worrying about any sounds. If you really want the sounds, however, here’s how to do it.

Enable Sounds in Registry

In Windows 8, if you open Control Panel, click on Sound and then click on the Sounds tab, you’ll notice that the Windows Logon and Windows Logoff options don’t even exist in the list box. Here’s how we can enable the sounds in the registry.

Press Win Key + R on your keyboard to bring up the Run dialog box and type in regedit. You can also just go to the Start Screen and start typing regedit and it’ll show up in the Charms bar on the right.

Now navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERAppEventsEventLabels

You’ll see a whole bunch of items listed here, but the ones we are interested in for this post are WindowsLogon and WindowsLogoff.

Click on WindowsLogon and then double-click on the ExcludeFromCPL key in the right pane. Change the value from 1 to 0. You should now be able to open Sound from Control Panel and see the items listed without having to restart or log off.

You will also need to check the Play Windows Startup sound box because it will be unchecked for sure in Windows 8.

Next, you have to download the startup sound changer program mentioned above and run that to replace the actual Windows logon sound. Again, you can still change the other sounds in Windows 8 by click on the sound and choosing Browse, it’s just the startup sound that requires all this extra work. However, you still have the extra step of enabling the sounds in the first place in Windows 8 using the registry.

Lastly, you have to perform a full shutdown in Windows 8 in order to hear the login sound when you startup. In order to perform a full shutdown in 8.1, you have to right-click on the Start Button, choose Shut down or sign out and then click on Shut down.

If you try to shut down using the Start Screen or by going to the Charms bar and clicking on power button, it will perform a hybrid shut down and not play the sound. Here are screenshots so you know exactly what will not work.

So that’s about it for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8. I’ll also update this post when Windows 10 gets closer to release this year, as it’ll probably be different from all the methods above! If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!

There’s something magical about the Windows 95 startup jingle (maybe owing to the fact that it was created by the great Brian Eno). I thought it’d be simple to use the nostalgic noise as my Windows 10 startup sound but was unpleasantly surprised to find that it’s actually deceptively difficult.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants Windows to greet me with a nice jingle, so here I’ll show you how to bring back a startup sound to Windows 10 and (if you so wish) replace it with quite possibly the best OS startup sound of them all.

Switch Off Fast Boot

You’ve probably noticed by now that when you shut down your Windows 10 PC you can magically turn it on again by pressing any key on your keyboard instead of the Power button on your machine. This is thanks to the “Fast Boot” feature in Windows 10 which essentially hibernates your PC, shutting it down but keeping your session, drivers and so-on dormant in the hibernation file, ready to spring back into action as soon as you turn your PC on.

Fast boot can speed up boot time, though its effects aren’t significant and some people have even reported that it slows down their boot time. It also prevents Windows from greeting you with a jingle because Windows doesn’t think that your PC was actually shut down in the first place.

So switching off Fast Boot can restore your startup sound. To do this, click Start, type power options, then click “Power Options” in the search results.

Windows Xp Startup Sound Wav

In the Power Options window, click “Choose what the power buttons do,” then uncheck the “Turn on fast start-up” box. If it’s greyed out, click “Change Settings that are currently unavailable,” then untick the box.

Enable Windows Start-up Sound

Next, we need to go to the sound options in Windows 10. In the notification area at the bottom-right corner of your desktop, right-click the speaker icon, then click Sounds.

Windows Startup Sounds Wav Files

In the Sound window click the Sounds tab, then tick the “Play Windows Start-up sound” box. Your PC should now play a jingle whenever it boots. If you’re content with the Windows 10 startup sound, you can stop now. If you want to indulge your nostalgia and replace it with the Windows 95 jingle (or any other sound for that matter), read on.

Replacing the Windows 10 Startup Sound

If you want to replace the default Windows 10 jingle, you’ll need to use a “.wav” file or convert an existing audio file to a .wav file. This is simple to do, and you can use a free online converter like online-convert or media.io to do it.

If you want to use the Windows 95 jingle like me, you can download it from here by right-clicking the little WAV logo and clicking “Save link as.”

Once you have your .wav file, it’d seem logical to change the startup sound from the Sound settings window, but for some reason this option is missing.

Thankfully, there’s a workaround to this, and you can download a small, simple tool made specifically for changing your startup sound. Download Startup Sound Changer, extract it, then run it.

In Startup Sound Changer, click Replace, then navigate to your jingle and add it. Now just kick back and enjoy the soothing sound of Windows starting up!

Conclusion

It’s deceptively complicated to switch up your Windows 10 startup sound and a bit strange that Microsoft hasn’t tried to make it a bit simpler. Your startup noise is your Big Welcome as you boot up your PC, capable of setting you off on the right foot for a day of computer-based productivity, leisure, gaming, whatever.

Windows Startup Sound Wav

Or maybe I’m reading too much into it. But I know that I feel much more satisfied now that I have Brian Eno’s perfect six-second startup sound greeting me each time I boot up.

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Windows Startup Wav Download

In this ebook we’ll be exploring the multitude of options to fully customize Windows 10. By the end of this ebook you’ll know how to make Windows 10 your own and become an expert Windows 10 user.