Windows Startup sound

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When I tried to change that sound, I had two choices:  no sound or the one Microsoft coded into Windows 11.

If I try to select a sound it looks like it is going to work, but then doesn’t.  It just starts with no sound.

 

 

Chuck Billow

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I may be wrong, but I think that changing the startup sound hasn’t been supported since Windows XP! The logon sound hasn’t been supported for a while either, the last one to support that was Windows 7.

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Here’s how to re-enable the startup sound on Windows 11.

Settings > System > Sound > More sound settings > Sounds tab.

Check the Play Windows Startup Sound box.

Reboot your PC for it to take effect.

After it’s been enabled, you can change it to another sound if you want.

For Windows 10, the checkbox is located at:

Settings > System > Sound > Sound Control Panel > Sounds tab.

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There is no default interface to change the startup sound in Windows. To enable this open the registry editor and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/AppEvents/EventLabels/WindowsLogon
In the right pane change the value for ExcludeFromCPL from 1 to 0. Close the registry editor and reboot your system. You should be able to change the Windows Logon sound in the Control Panel.

 

--Joe

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Cybertooth, A1ex, PL1

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Joe:  Your instructions went exactly as they should have.  The only problem is that I have auto-logon set, and for some reason that bypasses the sound totally.

Very strange…

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That’s because Joe’s instructions are how to enable the logon sound (which only plays after you’ve logged in) and, with auto-login enabled, Windows doesn’t detect the logon required to play the sound because you’re “bypassing” the logon process!

I also use auto-login and the logon sound doesn’t play for me either but the startup sound (which plays after Windows starts up) does.

Note: because Microsoft actually hard coded the startup sound into the C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll file for Windows 10 & 11, if you want to change it you have to use a 3rd party app like Startup Sound Changer or Winaero Tweaker.

Personally, I used Winaero Tweaker as it also includes a lot of other Windows settings customizations.

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Cybertooth

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Just to clarify, the Startup sound and Logon sound are two completely different things.

The Startup sound plays when Windows “starts“, the Logon sound plays after you “sign-in“.

The above advice from @joep517’s enables the Logon sound not the Startup sound.

For example, the value he refers to was set to 1 on my PC and the sound control panel shows a SystemStart option, which works because the box I mentioned in my above post is checked, but there is no Windows Logon option.

When I changed ExcludeFromCPL to 0 and rebooted as he suggested, it added a extra Windows Logon option.

I my case, I elected to only use the Startup sound so, when I’m not actually in front of my PC, I can “hear” that Windows started and is waiting for me to login.

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