How to Bring Back Startup Sound in Windows 10, 8.1

Turn on startup sound on Windows 10, Windows 8.1

1. Tweak your Registry
2. Enable startup sound from Personalization settings

Enabling the startup sound for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 can be a very helpful thing. For example, let’s take the case where you are at work and you have 2 Windows 10, 8.1 PCs that you are working on. If you are working on one Windows 10, 8.1 PC and you are waiting for the other one to start, then hearing the startup sound will notify you when the other PC is ready for use.

After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, you will most likely lose the startup sound. Microsoft disabled it on the new Windows 10, 8.1 operating systems. Don’t worry, you can get it up and running by following the instructions below.

Enable startup sound on Windows 10, 8.1

1. Tweak your Registry

1. Press and hold the “Windows” button and the “R” button.
2. The “Run” dialog box will open, type in the box “regedit” and press “Enter” on the keyboard.
3. The “Registry Editor” window should now be opened.
4. Click (left click) on “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” on the left of the window.
5. Under “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” click (left click) on “AppEvents”.
6. Under “AppEvents”, click (left click) on “EventLabels”.
7. Under “EventLabels”, you will have access to several options related to sound on Windows 8, 10.
8. Look Under “EventLabels” and find “WindowsLogon” and click (left click) on it.
9. On the right side pane, look for “ExcludeFromCPL”


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10. Double click (left click) on “ExcludeFromCPL” and change the value in the box to “0” without the quotes or just delete what you see written in the box.
11. You can do the same to enable other sounds specific for Windows 8, Windows 10.
12. Close the Registry Editor window.
13. Now, all you have to do is to open in Control Panel the Sound Application you have there and you will be able to customize Windows logon sound.
14. Restart your  Windows 10, 8.1 PC and see if the startup sound works for you.

2. Enable startup sound from Personalization settings

1. Right-click on your desktop > go to Personalize
2. Navigate to Sounds > locate Play Windows Startup
3. You can enable Windows Startup sound by checking the ‘Play Windows Startup sound’ option. You can also customize the startup sound and choose the one that you like.
4. Click on “Apply” on the lower side of the window.
5. Restart the PC and check if the sound works.

There you have it. You can now enable startup sound on Windows 10, 8.1 PCs in just a few quick steps. If you have other ideas or suggestions on this matter, let us know in the comments below.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been since updated for freshness, and accuracy.