Windows 10 offers many customizations, one of which is the ability to change the default startup sound. If you don’t like the default chime that plays when you boot up your PC, you can change it to something of your liking.
This guide shows you step-by-step how you can use a custom tone as the default startup sound in Windows 10.
1. Turn Fast Startup Off
Fast startup is a feature that lets you quickly boot your Windows system up. A disadvantage of using this feature is that you don’t get to hear the startup sound.
To enable and use a custom tone for the startup, you must first disable this feature on your computer. Except for slowing down the boot time by a few seconds, this shouldn’t have any other effect on your PC.
Here’s how to turn fast startup off in Windows 10:
- Open the Start menu, search for Control Panel, and click the first result.
- If you’re viewing the panel in category mode, click the Hardware and Sound option. Otherwise, click Power Options.
- Select Power Options on the resulting screen if you clicked Hardware and Sound in the above step.
- Click Choose what the power button does on the left.
- Select the Change settings that are currently unavailable link.
- Untick the option for Turn on fast startup (recommended).
- Click Save changes at the bottom to save your changes.
![](https://thebetterparent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/disable-fast-startup.png)
There are ways to fix slow boot times in Windows 10 if your PC takes ages to boot up.
2. Enable Windows 10 Startup Sound
Now that fast startup is disabled, you need to enable the option that lets you customize the default startup sound.
Enabling that option requires you to modify a value in the Windows registry. This isn’t too complex, and you should be done in a minute or two.
Here’s how you do that:
- Press Windows Key + R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
- Click Yes in the prompt to make changes to the registry.
- When the registry opens, navigate to the following path.
HKEY_CURRENT_USERAppEventsEventLabelsWindowsLogon
- On the right, double-click the entry that says ExcludeFromCPL.
- Enter 0 in the Value data field, select Hexadecimal, and click OK.
- Click the File menu and select Exit to exit the registry.
![](https://thebetterparent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/enable-startup-sound-option.png)
The option to customize the default startup should now be enabled.
3. Download the Startup Sound Tone
This is something that we really can’t help you step-by-step. You need to download or pick the tone from your computer that you want to use as the default startup sound on your PC.
This could be any audio file that’s available either on the internet or on your computer.
If you don’t already have the tone, you can download one from the internet and save it to your PC. There are many free audio download websites that you can use to download a nice tone for your computer’s boot sound.
Make sure your tone isn’t too lengthy. This is because, as you already know, your PC plays the startup sound only for a couple of seconds and not longer than that.
4. Convert the Startup Sound Tone to a Compatible Format
Your downloaded tone must be in WAV format to use it as the default startup sound. If your file is in MP3 or any other audio format, the first thing you need to do is convert your file to WAV.
That’s fairly easy to do, thanks to many free audio converters available out there.
Simply pick one of the converters, upload your tone, choose WAV as the output format, and your Windows 10 startup chime should be ready.
5. Change the Default Startup Sound on Windows 10
Now that your tone is ready, here’s the final procedure to make it the default startup sound on your Windows 10 computer.
Follow these steps to do that:
- Open the Start menu, search for Change system sounds, and click the first result.
- Tick the box that says Play Windows Startup sound.
- Find Windows Logon in the Program Events section, and single-click it.
- You can hear the current sound by clicking the Test button.
- To change the current sound to your tone, click the Browse button.
- Navigate to the folder where your WAV tone is located, and double-click it.
- The name of your tone appears in the Sounds dropdown menu. Click Test to test your tone.
- If you’re happy with everything, click Apply followed by OK at the bottom.
![](https://thebetterparent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/change-default-startup-sound.png)
The next time your computer turns on, you’ll hear the newly selected startup sound instead of the default one.
How to Reset the Default Startup Sound on Windows 10
If you ever feel like going back to the default startup chime, you can do so by changing a settings option on your Windows 10 PC.
Here’s how:
- Search for Change system sounds in the Start menu, and click the first result.
- Find Windows Logon in the Program Events section, and single-click it.
- Click the Sounds dropdown menu at the bottom, and select the Windows Logon.wav option.
- Click Apply followed by OK to save your changes.
![](https://thebetterparent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/reset-startup-sound.png)
Your PC will now play the default Windows startup sound on the boot.
How to Quickly Change the Default Startup Sound on Windows 10
If you change the default startup sound too often, you might find the above procedures to be a bit too much.
In this case, you can actually use a free app called WinAero Tweaker to change your boot chime. This app is available in the portable version as well, and so you don’t need to install anything on your computer.
To use this app:
- Download and run the WinAero Tweaker setup file.
- When it asks to choose a mode, select Portable mode.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
- Launch WinAero Tweaker.
- Expand Appearance on the left, and click Startup Sound in the expanded menu.
- Tick Enable Startup Sound on the right.
- Select Replace startup sound.
- Choose a WAV file to set it as the default startup sound.
![](https://thebetterparent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/replace-startup-sound.png)
Changing the Boot Chime to Your Liking on Windows 10
If you aren’t a big fan of the current startup sound, the methods above should let you change that to your favorite tone on your PC. You can always revert to the default tone whenever you want.
Windows 10 is customizable to a great extent, and this allows you to make your PC truly yours by letting you change each and every aspect of it.