Windows XP, released by Microsoft in 2001, shipped with a set of short system sounds that told users when something needed attention, and the asterisk alert became one of its most recognisable cues. As old computers and operating-system nostalgia spread through online video and meme edits, the chime was lifted out of its original context and reused as shorthand for a wrong move, much like a game-show buzzer. Its survival owes less to the software itself than to that instant, widely understood signal of failure.