- Jensen Harris, who labored on numerous variations of Home windows through the years, reveals what the unique Home windows 8 startup sound was.
- Home windows 8 by no means shipped with a startup sound, so few have heard it earlier than.
- In addition to Home windows 8, Harris additionally reveals that the primary Floor PC had its personal distinctive startup chime, but it surely, too, by no means shipped.
- Each startup sounds can be found to obtain from Harris’s web site.
On Could 29, 2021, Jensen Harris, the earlier Director of Program Administration for the Home windows Consumer Expertise staff, dropped a random video on his YouTube channel. The deep-dive, story-driven video defined why Home windows now not has a startup sound. Harris’s justification got here all the way down to how instances have been altering, particularly how (and when and the place) individuals have been utilizing PCs.
It is some fascinating stuff.
On the finish of that video, Harris teased that regardless of Home windows 8 being the primary model of Home windows to not ship with a startup sound, one was created for it, which he would reveal later.
After 15 months of ready, we lastly obtained that massive reveal — and it was value it.
Harris’s video doesn’t simply play the sound, nonetheless. As a substitute, he explains intimately how all of the sounds in Home windows 8 took almost a yr to create. He even introduced within the unique sound designer, Matthew Bennett (Microsoft did an in-depth Story Labs (opens in new tab) on him in 2018), to clarify the method.
In a plot twist, Harris reveals that the Home windows 8 startup sound had been found earlier than, however not many had heard it. The explanation was regardless of it not being enabled, the file at all times existed in builds of Home windows 8, and it was hidden in plain sight, discovered underneath the Home windows/Media folder as “Home windows Logon.”
Whereas which will frustrate some, Harris throws the viewers one other tantalizing curveball. Through the improvement of Home windows 8, there was additionally a secret Microsoft mission that glided by codenames “WDS” and “Georgetown.” These names have been chosen as a result of they have been so generic sounding in order not to attract consideration if leaked.
Certainly, these have been the codenames for the first Floor PCs.
Harris then explains how lower than a dozen individuals have been engaged on the mission in a bland, tucked-away room on Microsoft’s campus.
The new information was Harris revealed {that a} Floor-specific startup sound was additionally created. However this one was by no means shipped, and nobody outdoors a couple of individuals has ever heard it till in the present day.
Cue the dramatic music.
Curiously, Harris wanted the sound from Bennett, however because the sound designer, even he couldn’t know of the existence of Floor. Bennet had created a couple of variations of the proposed Home windows 8 startup sound: One was three notes lengthy, and the opposite had 4. Harris informed Bennett they have been passing on the four-note model, however secretly Harris was placing it apart to be used in Floor.
And at last, Harris performs the Home windows 8/Floor startup sound for the primary time within the massive dramatic reveal.
As Harris clarifies, the Floor four-note startup sound is solely the Home windows 8 three-note model with a “grounding low be aware” originally. It additionally mirrors the development of the Home windows 7 startup chime.
The very best a part of the video, in addition to the intriguing and charming historical past, is Harris has posted each .wav information to be downloaded in your private use. Now, you may relive what virtually was.
In 2021, we requested if Microsoft ought to convey again the startup sound in (the then-unreleased) Home windows 11. Seventy-four p.c of you say sure, as long as it’s non-obligatory. Microsoft hasn’t come by way of with that request, however there’s at all times hope for the subsequent model of Floor because it hits its ten-year mark.
