Windows XP launched in 2001 and defined desktop computing for much of the 2000s, when intrusive browser pop-ups were a daily annoyance. Its pop-up blocker made this short alert familiar, signalling that a window had been stopped before loading. As XP screenshots and sounds were recycled in memes and fake error videos, the chime survived the operating system itself. It now sits alongside the classic error sound in editing libraries, used less as a real warning and more as a nostalgic shorthand for a computer refusing a request.