The melody that is played at Windows’ startup is called the “Startup Sound” and every single version of the Windows Operating System to have ever been developed and distributed has always been shipped with its own unique startup sound. This also holds true for Windows 10, which has its own unique startup sound. Most users, however, get bored of hearing the same tune over and over again every single time their computer boots up, and some of these users even want to go as far as to change Windows 10’s default startup sound to something different.
Maybe you want to hear the Windows 98 startup sound when your Windows 10 computer boots up to get a blast from the past, or maybe you want to hear a drum roll when your computer boots up because why not? Well, fortunately, anything is possible as the Windows 10 startup sound can, indeed, be changed.
Changing Startup Sound
- Press “Windows” + “R” to open the Run prompt.
- Type in “regedit” and press “Enter”.
- Navigate to the following address.
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\EventLabels\
- Double click on the “WindowsLogOn” folder.
- Double click on the “Exclude from CPL” option and change the “Hexadecimal” to “0”.
- Double click again on the “WindowsLogOff” Folder and double click on the “ExcludeFromCPL” file in the right pane.
- Change the “Hexadecimal” value to “1” and save the changes.
- Now click on the “Search” box and type in “Change System Sounds”.
- Select the first option and scroll down.
- Double click on the “Windows Log On” option and select the “Browse” button.
- Select the sound that you want to play at startup.
Note: You will need to copy the sound file in the “C:\Windows\Media” Folder beforehand and make sure it is in the “.wav” format. - Double click on the “Windows Log Off” option and select the “Browse” button.
- Select the sound you want to play at shutdown.
- Click on “Apply” and then on “OK”.
- The startup sound has now been changed.