14 DAY TRIAL // Back in the ‘90s, getting an operating system right wasn’t just a thing of listening to user feedback or anything like this, but paying attention to the tiniest detail, including to the sounds that were included by default.
Microsoft knows this best, as the software giant spend quite a lot of time trying to make the right pick for the Windows 95 startup sound. Engineers were well aware from the very beginning that the sound shipped with Windows was supposed to be easily recognizable, but at the same time, to come with something truly special that nobody else had at that time.
This is why a group of Microsoft engineers reached out to Brian Eno, an English musician, composer, singer, writer, and record producer who is particularly known for his work in ambient music.
And while Eno agreed and managed to create a unique startup sound for Windows 95, the story behind how everything came to be is even more interesting.
So many adjectives
Eno recalls that Microsoft’s request to create a startup sound for Windows came just at the right time because he was “completely bereft of ideas.”
“I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, ‘Here's a specific problem – solve it,’” he said in a 1996 interview.
Eno explains that Microsoft designers Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk had very specific requirements for the Windows 95 sound. “We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,” Eno cites the engineers as saying, adding that one of the last things they mentioned was the sound had to be just 3 seconds long.
The musician created not one, not two, but 84 different samples, out of which Microsoft picked just one. All of these samples were made on an Apple computer for a reason that you’re not going to believe. “I’ve never used a PC in my life. I don’t like them,” he said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in 2011.
No specifics were provided on the app used to make the sound, and the source was never published publicly for a reason that’s not hard to figure out.
Huge investments in marketing
Creating such a short sound file for Windows 95 changed Eno’s perspective about this work, he admitted, because returning to “working with pieces that were like three minutes long seemed like oceans of time.”
Truth be told, the Windows 95 startup sound, also known as the Microsoft Sound, has become of the most famous ever included in a Microsoft product. There are now several copies of the audio file uploaded to YouTube, each with hundreds of thousands of views, while many people exported the file to use it in later versions of Windows. Furthermore, the Microsoft Sound also ended up being used as a ringtone on smartphones, as its length made it just the perfect choice for a text message or email alert.
Windows 95 wasn’t Eno’s only computing project, as he also created a substantial part of the music included in Spore, a game launched by Electronic Arts in 2008. Additionally, he worked together with Peter Chilvers on generative music apps for iOS, including Bloom. Their most recent launch is called Reflection.
Microsoft invested heavily into making Windows 95 a hit, and marketing played a key part in the company’s strategy.
The OS launched with a promotional video that used Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up single, and Microsoft released additional material featuring Friends stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry. Furthermore, Microsoft lit the Empire State Building in the United States to show the Windows logo, and similar efforts were made in the largest markets across the world in order to mark the launch of Windows 95.
The operating system was retired on December 31, 2001, at a time when Windows XP was becoming increasingly popular.
