Windows 95 launched in 1995 and introduced a familiar set of desktop sounds for starting up, shutting down and system alerts. The ding was one of its default notification chimes, stored as a short WAV file users could assign to events in the control panel. As clips of older computers spread on video platforms and forums, the sound became shorthand for 1990s computing, software errors and retro interfaces. It remains widely reused in memes, parodies and edits that imitate early Windows desktops.