Windows 7: Change startup sound without a dll hack!

Hi,

If you prefer the normal way to change the .dll, then this will show you how to: Startup Sound - Change in Windows 7


Below is a and simple trick to change the startup sound for Windows 7 that does not involve changing a dll. So, for anyone who prefers not to tamper with dlls, this might be a good alternative solution.

1. First (this could be the hardest part): get the sndrec32.exe from Windows XP (just copy it from your old system).
2. On your Windows 7 system, put the sndrec32.exe somewhere you prefer, e.g. in your Programs folder.
3. Run the application once as an administrator and close it so it will register to the Registry. If you don't do this, you might get a warning message every time it runs.
4. Create a shortcut to sndrec32 on your desktop.
5. Right-click the shortcut > Properties > Tab Shortcut.
6. Edit the target: add /embedding /play /close and the path to the wav file you want to be played at startup.
   E.g., change it to
   "C:\Program Files (x86)\sndrec32.exe" /embedding /play /close D:\Documents\MySound.wav
7. Cut the shortcut from the desktop and paste it in your startup folder.
   (To access the startup folder, click START > All Progams, right-click on Startup > Explore all users )
8. Disable the normal Windows 7 startup sound.
   (Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Sounds and uncheck the option "Play Windows Startup Sound")
   

And that's it!
What you've done is you have simply told Windows 7 not to use its own startup sound, but to run sndrec32 at startup in invisible mode (embedding), play your wav file and close again. The effect is that you will hear your wave file being played with no lag during startup. Enjoy!

Any1 tried this? I'm thinking of trying it out today, sounds simple and my folks PC still runs XP so I can get sndrec32.exe from their PC.

Hey Sanny I tried this and I upon start up I get a message from Sound Recorder: "Cannot open 'C:\"my sound file location"'.

I tried it a couple of weeks ago. It played the wav I wanted but sound recorder did not close. stayed open on the desktop. I also did not like seeing sound recorder come up on desktop at startup. Maybe I did something wrong.

This worked to me after reading and surfing the net regarding start-up sound change..
I just followed the instructions exactly as mentioned.

i found this sndrec32.exe file over the net since i don't have an XP running OS anymore on this link Index of /pro
*note: some AV might find this site as not trusted but ALLOW it and it's safe.

with regards to the editing of the target of the shortcut:
6 - Edit the target: add /embedding /play /close and the path to the wav file you want to be played at startup.
E.g., change it to
"C:\Program Files (x86)\sndrec32.exe" /embedding /play /close D:\Documents\MySound.wav

put spaces before:
/embedding
/play
/close
and space to the location of your preferred sound file...

then follow the remaining instructions and you are done without encountering errors.