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In May 2021, Jensen Harris, a former department head on the Windows User Experience team, went into detail on his video blog about why Microsoft dropped the Windows wake-up sound. However, although Windows 8 was the first system without the sound of turning on, the corresponding melody for it was nevertheless developed.
15 months later, Harris posted a new video in which he said that it took almost a year to create all the sounds in Windows 8. And enthusiasts have found the sound of turning on Windows 8 before, since it was present from the very beginning in the Windows / Media folder called “Windows Logon”.
But that’s not all. During the development of Windows 8, there was also a secret project called “WDS” and “Georgetown”. These names were deliberately chosen so that they would not draw attention to themselves in the event of a leak. As you might have guessed, these were the codenames for the first two Surface devices.
About 10 people were working on the Surface at the time, in a modest and inconspicuous room on the Microsoft campus, Harris said. And for these devices, a turn-on sound was also created, but so far only a few people have heard it.
During the development of Windows 8, sound designer Matthew Bennet prepared several variants of the system’s startup sound, consisting of three and four notes. In the end, a three-note version was chosen for Windows 8, which Harris reported to Bennett. The four-note version was secretly shelved for use on the Surface.
