Windows sounds have been a classic that has changed practically with each version of the operating system. Currently, Windows 10 alerts us with sounds when a device is connected or disconnected, or when an error occurs. However, it has no startup sound, just like Windows 8. The company decided to remove it, and now we know why.
If you have used operating systems such as Windows 98, XP or Windows 7, you will have the boot sound embedded in your memories. Unfortunately, this sound may also have given you more than one heart attack if you turned the volume up to maximum in the previous session.
Laptops: reason to turn off the startup sound
Microsoft never said why they had removed it, but now Jensen Harris , who served as Director of Program Management for Windows User Experience , has explained in a video why he decided to remove the sound from Windows 8 onwards.
The key is that one night, Jensen Harris wanted to use his laptop. The problem is that it was very late, and she had a newborn baby. It was his turn to take care of her, and he wanted to turn on the laptop to surf the Internet. However, he did not remember whether or not he had left the computer silent , so he had a 50% chance of turning on the laptop and having the start-up sound sound and wake his daughter and wife.
For this reason, Harris decided to leave the computer off and not use it, and that was when he realized not only how unhelpful the Windows startup sound was , but also that it had no use in a device that was designed to be used in a home, day or night.
A quick solution to the problem could have been to connect a pair of headphones to the laptop’s jack , so that the startup sound would play through them and no one would wake up. However, it appears that Harris was already determined that it was best to remove the startup sound, and told his team to remove it from Windows 8.
Microsoft tried to reintroduce the startup sound, but ultimately decided not to include it; especially for the version for ARM, where they tried to reduce the loading time as much as possible. By leaving the sound to load later at startup, they saved a second in loading time, and also reduced by tens of MB what needed to be loaded at the beginning.
We will soon know the Windows 8 startup sound
The Windows 8 boot sound exists, but it did not make it to the final version. Harris claims that he will show it in a future video on his YouTube channel. In the video he tells the story of the startup sounds, and how it went from the beep of the first IBM PC to more complex sounds, where each version was improving on the previous one in a way to demonstrate how each one was progressing.
However, the expansion of laptops has meant that a computer can be used in any situation or time of day, far from the typical room dedicated to the PC, so a startup sound can be very annoying. The same happened with mobiles, and macOS removed it in 2016 by default, but it allows users to choose whether they want to activate it or not. We will always have to customize the Windows startup message.