Windows 2000 was released by Microsoft in February 2000 as the successor to Windows NT 4.0, aimed mainly at business and office users. Its startup chimes were part of the default Windows sound scheme, heard daily in workplaces alongside the similar sounds of Windows 98 and Windows ME. As those systems disappeared, recordings of the chimes survived on video sites and soundboards as a shorthand for early 2000s computing. Creators now reuse the melody in nostalgia edits, retro tech jokes, and memes about slow, outdated machines that belong to another era.