Even though Windows 11 has taken over PCs in the last couple of years, whenever we think of the Microsoft operating system, Windows 95 comes to mind because of its six-second startup sound. It has proved iconic enough to find space in the Library of Congress through the National Recording Registry.
“These are the sounds of America — our wide-ranging history and culture. The National Recording Registry is our evolving nation’s playlist,” librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said.
Behind the six-second sound was the English musician Brian Eno, considered an ambient music pioneer. Windows 95 wanted to change the way we interact with a PC by bringing together the majority of programmes and tasks inside a graphical user interface, which was accessible in the form of icons and search bars.
Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry in the Windows 95 tutorial video
Originally, Microsoft engineers wanted to add audio clips for different aspects of the OS and one of those sounds was intended to play each time a user started up or rebooted Windows 95. In 1994, Microsoft designers Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk contacted composer Brian Eno for help with the project. Eno was already known for albums such as 1978’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports and 1983’s Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.
Microsoft wanted a chime that “conveyed the sense of welcome, hopefulness and progress”. “The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives,” Eno said during an interview in 1996. “And then at the bottom it said: ‘And it must be 3.25 seconds long.’”
The duration didn’t stump Eno, who submitted 84 brief compositions to the company. Microsoft went with a sound clip that was double the length limit mentioned in the proposal. It became the Windows 95 jingle.
Brian Eno
Here’s a twist in the tale: Eno wrote the music on a Mac. He told BBC in 2011: “I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.”
Of course, Windows 95 had another interesting aspect — a fun tutorial. The sitcom Friends was gaining steam, making Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston big stars among the youth. The two were hired to host the official Windows 95 tutorial, which was zany and memorable.
The plot is straightforward: Aniston and Perry visit the office of Bill Gates, who doesn’t feature in the video, to audition for a role in the Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide. During their time at the office, they come face to face with characters, like Boris the maintenance guy, who explains “plug and play” and video game addict Joystick Johnny, who challenges Aniston to a game of 3D Pinball.
Another addition to the National Recording Registry this year is the original score of the hit video game Minecraft.