Microsoft released Windows 8 in 2012, followed by Windows 8.1 in 2013 and Windows 10 in 2015, and their shared system sounds became part of daily computing for millions of users. The short alert chime was heard for notifications, errors and system prompts, so it quickly became instantly recognisable outside the desktop too. Editors and meme creators began dropping it into videos as a shorthand for a glitch, a mistake or a computer refusing to cooperate, and it remains a go-to sound for tech humour online.