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Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001, and its startup sound, composed by Bill Brown, was designed to feel warmer and more welcoming than the brief chime used for Windows 95 by Brian Eno. The short orchestral melody played every time the system finished booting, so millions of home and school users heard it daily throughout the 2000s. As XP became one of the most widely used versions of Windows, the sound became a cultural shorthand for that era. Today it survives in memes, nostalgia edits and retro tech videos, where a few seconds instantly signal the early internet age.
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The iconic Windows XP startup chime, a warm rising melody from Microsoft's 2001 operating system. Used for nostalgia, retro tech edits and old computer memes.
This is the short startup sound that played when Windows XP finished loading, a gentle orchestral chime built around soft piano notes, warm strings and a bright, rising finish. It lasts just a few seconds, but the melody is instantly familiar to anyone who used a computer in the 2000s, carrying a calm and optimistic tone rather than the sharp beeps of earlier systems. Hearing it now triggers a strong wave of nostalgia, instantly placing a viewer back in a childhood bedroom, a school computer lab or an old family PC, which makes it feel comforting, familiar and slightly bittersweet all at once.
