I hadn’t realised Brian Eno wrote the Windows startup sound. Wow. 43 folders has a link to an interview with him:

The thing from the agency said, ìWe want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,î this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said ìand it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.î

I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. Itís like making a tiny little jewel.

Realising I couldn’t remember what the Windows startup sound sounded like, I hunted around and found this rather thorough discussion of it, with a sound file, too, though the author only thinks that this is the version of the Windows sound composed by Eno. The Mac startup sound was created by a sound engineer, not by a professional composer. You can read about the origins of many more tiny yet familiar sounds at Music Thing.