The Microsoft Sound is a six-second sound written by Brian Eno that served as the startup theme for the Windows 95 operating system (stored as The Microsoft Sound.wav). It was replaced with a different startup theme in the next major operating system release, Windows 98.TINY MUSIC MAKERS: Pt 2: The Microsoft Sound The name "The Microsoft Sound" is also used to refer to the default startup sounds of other Microsoft Windows versions, although they are completely different sounds.
Background and history In 1994, the Microsoft designers Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk approached Eno to compose music for Windows 95. The result was the six-second start-up music-sound of the Windows 95 operating system, "The Microsoft Sound". In an interview with Joel Selvin in the San Francisco Chronicle, Eno said:
Eno shed further light on the composition of the sound on the BBC Radio 4 show The Museum of Curiosity, admitting that he created it using a Macintosh computer, stating "I wrote it on a Mac. I've never used a PC in my life; I don't like them."
In 2025, the Microsoft Sound was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
See also Trip Through the Grand Canyon (CANYON.MID)
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