If you think that the Windows Vista rounded and translucent trademark sounds are the apex of the Windows musical evolution, well... think again. At the bottom of this article, you will find embedded a video fragment featuring a veritable Windows "symphony" put together with the default sounds of Windows 98 and Windows XP. Just listen for a musical perspective over the two of the operating systems that have preceded Windows Vista.

This is a "piece of music I made using some of the various sounds Windows XP and 98 come with. The music is about 1:31 long. After that, I show the sounds which were used. The video is screen-captured from ModPlug Tracker, the program which I made the music on. Just to try to avoid me having to reply to every other comment which says that it must have taken me ages to make, or that I must've been bored. This was just a way for me to pass a few hours of my time. Yes, I WAS bored. No, I'm not trying to 'prove' anything - that this is what I'm 'capable of'. I just thought I'd upload the video of it," revealed the author SomethingUnreal.

Unlike Windows 98 and Windows XP, Vista was more user oriented. And in this context, the sounds shipping with the operating system were an integral part of delivering a top user experience. No less than 45 new sounds were added into 45 locations of the operating system when Vista was released to manufacturing at the beginning of November 2006. Microsoft stated at the time that the audio cues added to the platform completed Vista from an Aero perspective giving the operating system an acoustic structure. Jim Allchin, the former Microsoft Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, revealed that all the Vista sounds were designed to be rounded and translucent, just like Windows Aero.