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The sound comes from Microsoft Windows Vista, released in 2007 as the successor to Windows XP, whose short startup melody became one of the most recognisable PC sounds of its era. In the 2010s YouTube earrape trend, creators took familiar clips like this, Windows error sounds and the MLG air horn, then boosted the bass and volume far beyond normal levels for pranks. Vista nostalgia kept this version in circulation on meme pages and soundboards, where it is still shared as a deliberately obnoxious blast from the late 2000s desktop era.
About this sound
The Windows Vista startup sound pushed to an extreme bass-boosted earrape volume, used as a loud meme punchline for shocking or funny edits.
This is the familiar Windows Vista startup chime rebuilt as an earrape joke, with the bass boosted until the clean tones distort, clip and boom through the speakers. The original was soft and welcoming, a short four-note welcome for logging on, but this version is deliberately overwhelming, heavy and distorted from the first second. It lands as a jump scare for the ears, funny because something so calm and nostalgic has been turned into a wall of low-end noise. Viewers instantly recognise the melody underneath the distortion, which makes the excessive volume feel even more absurd.
