Startup Sound - Change in Windows 7

How to Change the Windows 7 Startup Sound​

   Information

This will show you how to change the Windows 7 startup sound, not the "Windows Logon" sound, to any WAV file of your choice.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

   Note

If you run a sfc /scannow command, then you will lose all changes made to the system file in the tutorial below since it and all other system files will be restored back to default by the command.

   Warning

Making a mistake while modifying system files can render your Windows 7 installation unusable. To be safe, you should create a restore point before doing this tutorial in case you need to do a system restore at boot using the restore point to undo any mistakes that may be made.

   Tip

If you like, here are the Startup Sounds from previous Windows releases.

Windows History: logos, bootscreens, startup sounds etc | Redmond Pie

OPTION ONE

To Change Startup Sound in Windows 7 using "Startup Sound Changer"

1. If you have not already, download the StartupSoundChanger.zip file for the free Startup Sound Changer program at the link below, and save it to your desktop.
NOTE: You will need to click on the grey download button at the program's site below. WinAero: Downloads / Software / Startup Sound Changer - change your Windows startup


2. Open the ZIP file, and extract (drag and drop) the StartupSoundChanger.exe to your desktop.

3. Run the StartupSoundChanger.exe file, and click on Yes when prompted by UAC.
NOTE: This is a standalone .exe file that does not install anything on your computer.

4. With "Startup Sound Changer" you can set a .wav file to replace the startup sound, play current startup sound, and restore the default startup sound. (see screenshot below)

OPTION TWO

To Manually Change Startup Sound in Windows 7

1. Do step 2 or 3 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Restore Default Startup Sound in Windows 7

   Note

If you lost your backup or didn't create one, then here's a copy of the default startup sound .wav file that you could use to restore it with using step 3 below.


Download

A) Copy the default backup imageres_original.dll file (step 3O below) to your desktop.

B) Right click on the imageres_original.dll file and click on Rename.

C) Rename it to imageres.dll and press enter.

D) Repeat steps 3Q to 3X below to restore this file.
3. To Change Startup Sound in Windows 7 A) In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll. (see screenshot below)
B) Right click on the imageres.dll file, and click on Copy. (see screenshot above)

C) Right click on your desktop, and click on Paste.

D) If you have not already, then download and install Resource Hacker.

E) Right click on the Resource Hacker shortcut in Start Menu - All Programs, then click on Run as administrator. (see screenshot below)
F) If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

G) In Resource Hacker, click on File and Open. (see screenshot below)
H) Navigate to and select the imageres.dll file copy on your desktop, and click on Open. (see screenshot below)
I) In the left pane of Resource Hacker, expand WAVE, and 5080, to 1033. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If 5080 and 1033 is named something else, then that is fine as long as they are still under WAVE. Just substitute what you have instead in the steps below. You can click on the Play WAVE button to hear what the current startup sound is.
J) Right click on 1033 and click on Replace Resource. (see screenshot below)
K) Click on Open file with new resource. (see screenshot below)
L) Navigate to and select the .wav file that you want for the startup sound, and click on Open. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This .wav file must be unblocked and remain at this same location. For example, move or copy the .wav into the C:\Windows\Media. If you move or delete this .wav file, the startup sound will no longer play it.
M) Under Resource Type, type WAVE. Under Resource Name, type 5080. Under Resource Language, type 1033. Click on the Replace button. (see screenshots below)



N) Click on File and Save, then close Resource Hacker. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You can click on the Play WAVE button first to hear and verify what the current startup sound is set as in this file.
O) On your desktop, Move and Save the imageres_original.dll file to another safe location of your choice as a backup.

   Warning

THIS IS YOUR ONLY BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL IMAGERES.DLL FILE WITH THE DEFAULT STARTUP SOUND.

P) Check to make sure that the Play Windows Startup sound is checked in Sound so that it is turned on. (see screenshot below)
Q) Restart the computer and boot into the System Recovery Options (WinRE) screen, then select the Command Prompt option and press enter.
NOTE: If you do not have a retail Windows 7 installation disc, then you can create a System Repair Disc to use to boot to the System Recovery Screen instead.
R) In the command prompt, type diskpart and press enter. (see screenshot below step 3V)

S) In the command prompt, type list volume and press enter. (see screenshot below step 3V)

T) Make note of what the drive letter is for your Windows 7 partition or drive. (see screenshot below step 3V)
NOTE: The Windows drive is not always C at boot. For example, mine is listed as D here. Look at the volume name and size to help you determine which letter is the one that you have Windows 7 installed on.

U) In the command prompt, type exit and press enter. (see screenshot below step 3V)

V) In the command prompt, type the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Substitute D in the command below with the drive letter you have listed in step 3T for your Windows 7, and substitute username in the command below with your user account name.

COPY /V /Y "[B][COLOR=red]D[/COLOR][/B]:\Users\[B][COLOR=red]username[/COLOR][/B]\Desktop\imageres.dll" "[B][COLOR=red]D[/COLOR][/B]:\Windows\System32"

W) Close the command prompt, and click on the Restart button. (see screenshot above)

X) As Windows 7 restarts, you will hear your new startup sound.

   Tip

If you ever wanted to change the startup sound again anytime after the first time you did this tutorial, you would only need to replace the .wav file at the exact same location in step 3L in Windows Explorer with a different .wav file that you want to use now instead, then rename the new .wav file with the exact same name as the old .wav file. No other steps would be required.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Change the Event Sound Effects in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable the Startup Sound in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Allow or Prevent Changing Sounds in Windows 7
• How to Create a Custom Logon Sound that Speaks What You Like
• How to Change the "Welcome" Text Message at Log On in Windows 7 and Vista

 

[kamoteprotocol]

can i manually copy and replace the dll file?

 

[IMAyNeed]

As I know no, but wait for the pros to answer if you want.

 

[Brink]

can i manually copy and replace the dll file?

Hello Kamoteprotocol,

Normally that would be ideal, but since the imageres.dll file is in use when Windows 7 is running, you will not be able to do replace it (copy and paste) while in Windows 7. It will have to be replaced at boot as outlined in the tutorial.

 

[Night Hawk]

Good Find! Shawn I've been looking for a way to change the default Startup wav to something for some time now! Another good one from your direction!

I can imagine if you grew tired of the new wav sound you selected you could also change to another new one in order to have some diversity. That would also be an option if you don't feel comfortable trying to use the method provided for restoring the original sound you simply opt to have a variety with an occasion change.

 

[Brink]

That is definitely possible, and a good idea. Once you go through the tutorial once, all you would have to do is replace the wav file used with another that has the exact same name to avoid having to do the whole tutorial over again.

I added this as a TIP box in the tutorial.

 

[Night Hawk]

I can give that a test easy enough having a large collection of wav files(hundreds) I gathered up over several years. In fact I can try both options out by simply not renaming any to repeat the steps as another test for changing from one to the next. File renaming however is even easier being done in one step.

The steps are easy enough to follow. Wave, 5080, 1033, and select the next wav once you have followed the steps here a few times. Steps #15 through #24 would only be needed once since the imageres.dll file was backed up on the first run. Step #14 would be optional simply to check the integrity of the next wave before applied.

Another thing I can recommend is backing up any or all of the files found in the "C:\Windows\Media" folder itself before any renaming is seen with any of them. That will allow you to preserve the originals of each as well as providing another location for file renaming to be seen.

Thank's for adding the tip in isnce should be a help. I still want to test each methd out here however to see which will work out the best.

Update:

To answer kamoteprotocol's question as well as looking at alternate methods of replacing the original or new version of the imageres.dll file I ran some tests. kamoteprotocol had asked:

can i manually copy and replace the dll file?

The answer to that is yes! One test was seen when going to move the original file from the System32 folder when a full system image was restored to a second drive. While booted from the host drive you manually browse the imaged drive with Windows Explorer to the folder in order to take ownership over the original as the first step.

Once the original was moved to a safe location the new version was copied over from the host drive into the System32 folder followed by a full restart where the second drive was then selected from the boot device menu. New sound heard!

Once you have first saved the new file from the file menu as instructed in the guide here to the desktop it may work if you are presently dual booting 7 with the previous version Vista but might run into problems with trying to swap the files out if that is a dual boot with XP mainly due to the newer version of Windows problem. Windows 7 and Vista are closer compatibility wise.

If you are not dual booting but have more then two internal hard drives another tip which can be helpful when using the DiskPart tool would be first using the select disk # command prior to the select volume # command before typing exit at the command window. That will help insure you have the correct 7 primary selected to avoid any errors.

 

[grazeanhammer]

Hi,

wondered if someone could help? Followed the tutorial to get a classic UB40 tune start up sound. The only problem is that i still get the anoying window start up sound as well. This interupts my chosen sound and sounds at different times.

Can anyone advise how to get rid of?

Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello Graceanhammer, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Double check to see if your Windows Logon sound may be what you are hearing. If so, set it to nothing to not here it anymore.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/285-sounds-change.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[grazeanhammer]

Thanks shawn,

I have already checked this and set all to none, however, in my c:\system32\windows i have an imageres file that when put into reshacker and expanded to allow the play wave plays that annoying sound.

Does this mean i follows your tutorial wrong or what?

as i say i get the tune i wanted but also still get the windows start up.

thanks in advance

 

[Brink]

Grazeanhammer,

Yeah, it sounds like a mistake may have been made somewhere if your C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll file still has the default startup sound playing in it. Double check through OPTION ONE again to make sure that you have done all steps and each step in it exactly to see if you notice any mistake that may have been made.

 

[grazeanhammer]

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

 

[Brink]

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

 

[Night Hawk]

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

 

[Coke Robot]

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.

 

[Brink]

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.

 

[Night Hawk]

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!

 

[Brink]

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.

 

[Coke Robot]

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!

 

[Night Hawk]

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.

 

[CJW]

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?