Windows 7: Startup Sound - Change in Windows 7

The drive letter at boot is not always the same as in Windows. Be sure to do all of the steps at boot to help verify the drive letter is correct. Double check to make sure that the .wav file is unblocked, and that you have it's path correct in the modified .dll.

Yes I listed the volumes and C: is my main partition with windows on it.

The .wav was unblocked but it was set to read only and its 514kb where the majority of them are under 200. Now that its set off read only Ill try it again. Ill update you on what happens

Ok, so I did a system restore to kind of wipe all that stuff I did. After the system restore, instead of playing nothing it would play my normal windows startup sound.

After that I re-did the instructions step by step to the letter. I unblocked my .wav I did the CMD copy via DVD. I moved the .wav to media. And the .wav isn't read only. I took ownership, I opened RH as admin and changed the file properly. The CMD said the file was copied and I restarted.

But now its going back to not playing any sound at all. It wont play my .wav for some reason.

Is there a file size limit? Its like 514 KB. I don't know what if anything Im doing wrong. I have been able to edit all sounds, startup messages, orb, boot screen, logoff messages ect. But this wont work.

If .wav file had been converted from another audio format, then that could be the issue. If you like, try another smaller .wav file as a test to see if it may just be the one that you are using.

Ok the two files I am using.

File name: WTU.wav
Location: C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\Station 13-S806 Data\Background stuff
Size: 349 KB
Works fine.
Was a .mp3 converted to .wav in audacity.

File name: WTUR.wav
Location #1: C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\Station 13-S806 Data\Background stuff
Location #2: C:\Windows\Media
Size: 572 KB
Doesn't work.
Was originally a .wav
In media it isn't a shortcut. I copy/pasted it into that folder.

Both files are unblocked, not set as read only.
They both say the same thing, but WTUR is cleaner.

I used resourcehacker only, to change my startup sound on my laptop and desktop.

I recently reinstalled the OS on the desktop and I obviously would like to change the startup sound again.
I didn't save my custom startup sound anywhere, it's only located in imageres.dll

So, I open imageres.dll on my laptop and find that the sound located there is the original sound. Well, I then open imageres.dll in the sysWOW64 folder instead but the result is the same.

I'm confused....

If the startup sound isn't located in either imageres.dll files but it plays fine on startup, then where can I find it?

Hello Flagstang,

The startup sound is only referenced in the imageres.dll file. That's why we must use the steps exactly as in the tutorial to change this reference to the wav file saved on the computer we want played instead.

I understand that I have not went into CMD mode like in the tutorial, but copied the .dll file directly from the desktop to system32 without any problems. A restart and the new sound was played just fine back then.

I just want to know where the file is located now. It's not in any of the imageres.dll files but plays fine on startup.
If the sound file has been reduced to #%"#5&%"42"¤3%€& or something, then it doesn't matter. I just can't remember where I found that sound in the first place. It must be on the computer somewhere in order to be played, right?

It's going to be wherever you saved the .wav file at to use instead of the default startup sound. Do you know the name of the .wav file you used?

If not, then I suppose you could search the Computer window with *.wav in the search box into see if it you may spot it in the search results.

In my first post I said: "I didn't save my custom startup sound anywhere, it's only located in imageres.dll" which means that after I had loaded the sound into imageres.dll I deleted the sound file from the computer.

However I tried to do a 1033, 5080 and a .wav search from within "computer" and no usable results came up.

Basing on what you say to my responses, I'd assume you don't have a clue of where the sound file could be located at since it's not in imageres.dll.

I guess I'll just have to go through hours of searching the BBC's documentaries again