Windows 7: Startup Sound - Change in Windows 7

This was driving me crazy so after following ever stage and going through with a fine tooth comb i was really p'd to find that annoying start up sound still present...however, eventually found out it was skype auto log in that was the sound not windows. My fault, but thank god i found it before ripping the PC apart. It was that annoying.

Anyways shaun good tutorial does what is says on the tin

Thanks

That's great news Grazeanhammer. Thank you for posting back with your findings so that it may help others with the same issue.

Congrads on the success! Wouldn't you know it something simple got in the way.

Oh geez, this was bee sting to figure out for me! I figured it out a long while ago, but I never thought cmd could be used for that in Startup Repair, I've always used a Live CD of ubuntu to swap them.

Hello Andy,

Yeah, you could use any method you like to swap the imageres.dll file outside of Windows 7. That was just a way that I thought would be easier and more common to most folks.

I've used Linux Mint Debian live as well as using the command prompt method. But that was simply due to having the other OS onhand for other reasons while many strictly Windows users will benefit from the guide here.

It worked out well here. Shawn I hadn't been able to assign one particular sound for Windows startup since the XP days!

LOL, yeah you got to love the new security measures since XP to try and prevent anything other than default to run before the OS starts.

It kind of grinds my gears that both vista and 7 sound schemes are identical, and both sound like they're not part of the Windows brand. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but every version since 95 had a startup sound that sounds like it was composed with an orchestra, not a random synthesizer.

By the way, any previous vista beta testers out there? I have my startup sound with a sound from a beta build of vista, there's some doubt that it's an actual sound, but it's elegant either way!

I ran the Vista RC1 for a brief period before waiting for the RTM release a few months later which didn't really allow anywhere near the time seen for both 7 beta and RC builds. I simply went for Vista back then wanting out of XP at the time.

The newer security measures of course can be a big help while being stuck with the same startup sound can get boring fast. At least now we have an option available to make a change there.

Brink, I did this w/o a problem before, but now that I've installed SP1, it doesn't work.

I had to do a full wipe of my HD & reinstall 7 Pro 64Bit. I did all the updates & the only difference now is the install of SP1, now the Startup Sound will not change after I've followed the directions. I know I followed correctly, b/c I verified that the imageres.dll in the C:\Windows\System32 folder play the sound I want.

I did a full comfuser search (w/all files, folders & drives unhidden) & found imageres.dll in 3 other folders:
1. C:\Windows\SysWow64
2. C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-imageres_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_38b294da11970cde
3. C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-imageres_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_dc93f95659399ba8

These were not changed & still have Windows default sound. Do I need the change these as well?