Sounds have always been present in Windows, although in the past they were heard much more. Just think of the famous Windows 98 and Windows XP power-on sound that has been greatly reduced in Windows 7 and completely eliminated in Windows 8.
Whatever the initial configuration, however, you can customize the sounds of Windows in various ways, add the missing ones or silence those that you don't like or that are considered annoying.
You can find new sounds for Windows or even record your own .
In Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10 there are several predefined sound combinations that you can choose from.
These are themed sound effects schemes that are selectable by going to the Control Panel, opening the Audio section and then going to the Sounds tab.
In the category view of the Control Panel instead go to Hardware and sounds and, under Audio, click on Change acoustic signals emitted by the system
The sound effects can be previewed and the various combinations can be changed by clicking on the drop-down menu at the bottom.
The sounds can also change automatically based on the chosen background or the graphic theme installed.
Each audio combination can however be customized as you wish, choosing a different sound from the drop-down menu.
You can also put sounds to different Windows actions that don't actually have them.
You can also choose personal audio files that can be selected by pressing the Browse button.
To use a startup sound, you must activate the option on this screen.
Finding combinations of sounds to download for free and of good quality is very difficult.
A program that provides them, not completely free but very well done, simple and convenient is SoundPackager, which allows you to immediately apply sound patterns for Windows.
However, you can download sound effects from the internet to sites such as Freesound, FreeSFX and FindSounds to apply them to certain actions such as error or standard warning notification.
On this English forum you will find many other sounds to download for free and some old tricks that are still good for personalizing the sound pattern or for adding a personalized message when the PC starts.
Both sites include a search filter to limit the results to the .WAV audio file format which is the one that can be used as a Windows sound.
If you find a file of another format you can always convert it to WAV format with any program.
On the WinHistory.de site, on the other hand, you can find the startup sounds of all versions of Windows, including the historical version of Windows 95, which therefore also becomes usable in Windows 10.
To record new sounds on your computer you can use the Windows recorder and a microphone or an external program.
Among the best programs to record audio and sound, Audacity can also be used to record computer sounds.
From Audacity you can go to the editing menu to find the recording option.
Change "MME" to "Windows WASAPI, " choose the speakers (High Definition Audio Device) and change the third menu with speakers (High Definition Audio Device) (loopback). You can also choose between mono and stereo in the fourth drop-down menu, although it doesn't really matter.
To record audio from the desktop, play any video file from the internet and press the record button on Audacity.
After capturing the audio, you can use Audacity to edit and cut it.
Once you are satisfied, save the audio clip to a WAV file by going to File -> Export.
Finally, let's see how to change the computer startup sound in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 .
You need to run a program for this, called Startup sound enabler that allows you to activate or deactivate, with a click, the startup sound of the computer in Windows 10 and 8 and modify it.
This little tool does nothing but add sound execution when you start your computer to the Windows event planner.
