Windows Vista Sounds

The user experience is a high priority for Windows Vista, and part of that "experience" are the sounds that come with the operating system.  It's incredible the amount of work that goes in to capturing that perfect sound to represent different events in Vista, and we went to the trouble of drafting in Robert Fripp who I've personally never heard of, but my dad says was pivotal to the music era of the sixties (apparently).  Despite me not knowing who he is, he hails from a sleepy part of England called Dorset - and whilst that bears no relevance whatsover to the sounds in Vista, does mean he is British - which for me at least is something to be proud of.

More recently, it seems Fripp has been dabbling in producing atmospheric sound effects using to his trusty electric guitar, and those are the kinds of sounds you are going to hear in Vista - you can check out him in the Microsoft studios recording the sounds on this video

So over the weekend I installed a nice shiney RTM build and the sounds have been upgraded from the ones in XP to the new creations by Robert Fripp.  I'd thought I would share some of these with you and I've compiled them in this mp3 which you can download and listen to below.

The sounds I cover are the following:

  • Critical Stop
  • ReadyBoost drive inserted
  • Windows UAC control prompt
  • New e-mail notification
  • Low Battery Alarm
  • Exclamation
  • Windows Start
  • Exit Windows

 

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Download the mp3 here!