Does anyone know an easy way to change vista's start up sound? I found a way to do it but it involves deleting .dll files and im not really confident in my computer knowledge to start deleting that stuff....

To my knowledge there's no easy way to do this, the sound is embedded in the DLL and you've gotta change it or you'll break Windows.

FWIW - backup the original DLL so you'll have it readily accessible if the changed one doesn't work. That way you can revert back if you need to.

1. Yes there is an easy way just let me know if you want to use one of windows default sounds in place of startup sound or you want to make your own startup sound?

2. BTW If you mean winlogon dll files as usama mentioned altering them is a risky business.

I would appreciate if you would let me know how to do this farbar! I do have my own wave file!
Thanks!

I must say my initial judgment of easiness was not correct. I have read the instruction here (perhaps you have read it and it looked easy, then today saw your reply and thought it may not be not easy and not safe , so I decided to try it myself.

Anyway I had to use the instruction and improvise a little bit, but I change the sound and I can from now on change the startup sound within a minute, because once you change some settings you don't have to do it again if you decided you get tired of the sound. BTW I had to manipulate a dll, but with no risk as the original is there and I can replace the original any moment.

Still if want to do it:

1. Change the ownership of the dll mentioned to Administrator.
2. Change the permissions so that you can create and change the dll (this one is not mentioned there I had to find it myself)
3. You need Resource Hacker (read and if you wanted download from the link). You should right click it and select Run as Administrator.
4. Replace the WAVE file mentioned in the link, fill in WAVE, 5051,1033 in 3 open windows. Click Save under file. The Reshacker makes a backup of the original dll (imageres_original.dll) you can any moment rename to imageres.dll and it restores the original windows sound.

All above steps are clearly mentioned in the reference link. If you still decided to do it and needed I can tell you step by step the number 2.
Read the first instruction (7 step, then 4 steps and then comment from kekoa plus the 2 step mentioned here.

Since when did Microsoft remove the built in Sound and Audio Options feature where you can change the startup sound?

edit: i just checked and the option is there, although Startup Sound was not an option there. Was this available in XP?

cheers,
Jmsb

Yes it is available in XP and you could replace the WAVE files in the Media folder without having to change any setting. MS has decided the Vista startup sound should not be modified and should be the same all over the world.