How To Play System Startup And Shut Down Sounds On Windows 10
Operating systems have, for the longest time, played system startup and shut down sounds to indicate the event. To some users, this is an annoyance and while this feature was largely pervasive they sought ways to disable it. In the current version of Windows 10, you cannot play system startup and shut down sounds. The option was removed a while ago however a registry hack existed that could still enable it. That too is gone so we need a different work around for it.
You must have sound files ready, on hand, for startup and shut down. They should be in MP3 or WAV format.
System Startup Sound
In order to play system startup and shut down sounds, you will need to create two separate tasks in Task Scheduler. Open Task Scheduler and click Create New Task in the column on the right and follow the steps below.
- Give the task a proper name that tells you what it’s for. In this case, name it Startup Sound as the first task will be responsible for playing sound when your system boots up.
- On this same tab, select the ‘Run whether user is logged on or not’ option and enable the ‘Run with highest privileges’ option.
- Open the Configure for dropdown, and select Windows 10.
- Next, go to the Triggers tab, and click the New button at the bottom. Open the ‘Begin the task’ dropdown and select ‘At Startup’.
- Go to the Actions tab and click New. On the New Action window, select the sound file you want it to play when the system starts up.
- Go to the Conditions tab and disable the ‘Start the task only if the computer is on AC power’. If you prefer to not play sound when your system is on battery power, you can leave this option enabled. Click Ok.
- You will be prompted to enter the password for your account to create the task. Once it’s done, Windows 10 will play a sound when you turn your system on.
System Shut Down Sound
To play a system shut down sound, follow the above process but change what you do in step 4 to the following.
Go to the Triggers tab, and open the ‘Begin the task’ dropdown. From the dropdown, select ‘On an Event’. Open the ‘Log’ dropdown and select ‘System’. In the Event ID field, enter 1074.
Follow the rest of the above process and when your system shuts down, it will play the sound file that you selected.
