Why Microsoft Killed Off the Windows Startup Sound

If you’re a long-time Windows user, you probably remember that starting your computer hasn’t always been so quiet in the Microsoft world.

And it’s all because older Windows versions came with a startup sound that was played every time the operating system booted, therefore making it more obvious the desktop was ready to use.

But modern versions of Windows no longer come with a startup sound, and while the switch was received well by the community, Microsoft has never talked about the reasons for dropping this long-time OS feature.

Jensen Harris, the former Director of Program Management for the Windows User Experience team, provided more details about the Windows startup sound in a recent video, also revealing why the company eventually decided to give up on it.

Windows 7 was the last version with a startup sound

While we won’t provide any spoilers because the video is really interesting to watch, we’ll just tell you this: the first step towards removing the startup sound was made during a night when Harris couldn’t use his laptop because he was afraid of booting to the desktop would have made too much noise in a room where his newborn was sleeping.

“I had an experience around this time with my MacBook Pro. It was late at night, we had a new baby, and it was my turn to get up in the middle of the night with her. I really wanted to start up my laptop to browse the web, but I couldn’t remember if the volume was muted or not. I realized that I had a 50-50 chance of pressing the power button and hearing that loud startup chime, waking up my sleeping wife and groggy infant, and that I had no way to control it,” Harris says.

“I opted to just keep my laptop closed rather than risk it. And at that moment, I had a flash of insight that having devices play a startup sound was a really bad feature for a device designed to be used in a person’s most private and intimate spaces at any time of the day or night.”

“So I had my team remove the startup sound from Windows 8.”

Microsoft actually attempted to bring back the Windows startup sound at one point, and Harris promises he’d share the Windows 8 version in a future video.