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.