Windows Tools, Help & Guides

One of the things Microsoft forgot to properly think about when making Windows 7, was the start-up sound.  With every new version of Windows should come a new start-up sound, however they chose to keep it the same as Vista.

If you’d like to change the start-up sound (the sound played when you get to your login screen) then this is the guide for you.  My favourite start-up sound comes from Windows 95 and I’ll be using its start-up sound for this guide.

If you’d like to trip down memory lane and listen to all the Windows sounds, head over here.

I also came across some interesting remixes of the Windows start-up sounds here.

Step 1.

We need to take ownership and create a backup copy of imageres.dll and we’ll do so in the command prompt.

Press WinKey+R, type in cmd and hit click OK.

Step 2.

In the command prompt, type these commands in and hit enter after each one;

cd %windir%\system32

(Changes working directory to system32)

copy imageres.dll imageres-DEFAULT-.dll

(Makes a copy of imageres.dll to the same folder)

TAKEOWN /F %windir%\system32\imageres.dll && ICACLS %windir%\system32\imageres.dll /GRANT Administrator:F

(Changes ownership to Administrator and allows full control of imageres.dll)

Step 3.

Head over to Bome Software’s website and grab a copy of Restorator 2007 you can get a free trial or use an alternative such as resource hacker.

Open Restorator 2007, press Ctrl+O to invoke the open dialog box and type in this address;

%windir%\system32\imageres.dll

Click Open.

Step 4.

In the left pane of Restorator 2007, expand the WAVE folder.

In the main pane, you’ll notice one file named 5080.  This is the default start-up sound played when you get to your login screen.

Right click 5080, and select Assign… > Assign to…

Choose your preferred start-up sound (.wav) and click Open.

Now press Ctrl+S to save your changes and quit Restorator 2007.

The next time you boot your system, you’ll be greeted by the sound you just chose!

Return to Default.

Returning to default is a simple affair.

In Explorer, navigate to %windir%\system32

Rename the current imageres.dll to imageresDELETE.dll

Then rename imageres-DEFAULT-.dll to imageres.dll

All will be restored after the next boot where you can delete imageresDELETE.dll

Any problems, head over to the forums for help.

Have some cool start-up sounds you wish to share? Let us know in the comments!

Tested on Windows 7 x86.  Steps for Vista x86 should be very similar if not identical.

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