Change Windows Startup and Shutdown Sounds

I personally hate the default Windows startup and shutdown sounds, they are just plain loud and annoying! I changed mine a long time ago and since someone asked me how to do this recently, I thought I would go through the steps in order to change the Windows login and logoff sounds.

Interestingly, you can also change other sounds in Windows, such as the empty recycle bin sound, the new hardware insert sound, the error sound and lots more! You can take an MP3 of your favorite artist, convert it into WAV format and then use it to replace the default Windows sound.

You can use a freeware program like JetAudio to convert audio files into WAV format. The only thing you’ll need to keep in mind is that you want to keep the size of the file quite small, less than 500KB if possible. So you may need to first take an MP3 and cut out only the portion you want. You can use an audio editing program like Audacity to chop up the music.

Step 1: Find a song and convert it to WAV format. Try to keep the file size small, max at 1MB if you must.

Step 2: Now you need to rename these files to Windows XP Startup.wav and Windows XP Shutdown.wav respectively.

Step 3: Now we’ll go ahead and navigate to the folder with the current startup and shutdown Windows sounds. Go to My Computer and go to C:\Windows\Media. 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 4: Now copy the two renamed files to the C:\Windows\Media folder and restart your computer! You should now hear the new music, songs, or sounds play rather than the default sound.

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 is named the exact same as the one in the Media folder and then either replace it or move the original and then put in your new one!

Overall, it’s really simple to change the Windows login and logoff sounds, so it’s something most people will be able to do! Also, there’s no real way you can “harm” or “mess up” your computer. Enjoy!