Windows 8’s missing startup sound has been hiding in plain sight

The missing Windows 8 startup sound was revealed by a formerMicrosoft employee. The tradition of using unique startup sounds in Windows versions has been ended by Windows 8. The missing Windows 8 sound has been hidden in Windows 10 and Windows 11 for a long time.

Jensen Harris was the former director of program management for the Windows user experience team at Microsoft. Harris gives a description of the missing Windows 8 sound. The video is below The startup sound in Windows 10 and Windows 11 is the same as it is in Windows 7.

Why was it removed by Microsoft? The startup sound in Windows 8 was disabled due to the increasing use of laptops, just as Microsoft was trying to push more mobile PCs with Windows onARM. It was a way to make the coffee shop quieter.

Harris regretted the move. Harris regrets removing the sound, but it was too late to turn it back on. Engineering teams had to remove all the code that loaded the sound into memory and the audio stack early in the boot process in order to make Windows 8 the best it could be. Adding the sound back would have added to the boot process.

Harris hides the sound in Windows. There is a hidden sound in Windows 10 and 11.

A startup sound was planned for the original SurfaceRT. The Windows 8 startup sound has a low note at the start. The four-note progression of the Windows 7 startup sound is mirrored in this one. As part of the bootup changes, Microsoft disabled this sound.