Windows XP
17 sounds
Made for Windows 10 & 11
Change every Windows sound
in one click.
Pick a pack, hear it before you commit, and apply the whole scheme at once. Your old sounds are backed up, so you can go back whenever you want.
Free and open source No admin privileges
Explore the packsThe collection
The collection
30 ways to hear
your desktop.
The default schemes from Windows 98 through 10, the Windows 7 bonus themes, the Vista themes and the Microsoft Plus! packs — each applied as one cohesive soundscape.
Windows Vista
20 sounds
Windows 7
20 sounds
Windows 98
16 sounds
Windows 10
11 sounds
Windows 8
7 sounds
Small tool, big difference
Good sound design
is felt, not noticed.
01
Pack library
Preview complete sound schemes and switch your system mood in one click.
Learn more02
Event-by-event editor
Fine-tune a single notification, startup sound, or alert without the noise.
Learn more03
Safe by default
Every change is backed up, reversible, and made without touching system files.
Learn moreA little peace of mind
It touches little.
And only what can be undone.
No admin privilegesRuns in your user account, no elevation prompt.
No system files touchedOnly the same user settings Windows already uses.
Backup on every applyGo back to your previous sound scheme anytime.
Step by step
How to change
your Windows sounds.
Windows keeps its sound scheme in the registry, one entry per event — starting up, errors, notifications, emptying the Recycle Bin. Chimer edits those entries directly, so a new scheme takes effect straight away: no restart, no sign-out.
- 01
Pick a pack and listen
Thirty schemes are available, from the Windows 98 chime through XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10, plus the thirteen Windows 7 bonus themes and the Microsoft Plus! packs. Every sound plays on this page and in the app, so nothing changes before you have heard it.
- 02
Apply it in one click
One click writes the whole scheme at once. Chimer snapshots every event it is about to touch before the first write, and if any single event fails it rolls back the ones it already wrote — a pack is never left half-applied.
- 03
Change your mind freely
Each apply leaves a restore point holding the exact previous value of every event it touched. Restoring writes them back as they were. You can also swap a single event instead of a whole pack, or build a pack from your own .wav files.
Doing it without Chimer
You do not need an app for this. Windows exposes the same settings under Control Panel → Sound → Sounds, where you can assign a .wav to one event at a time and save the result as a named scheme. Chimer exists because that dialog handles a single sound per visit, gives you no way to preview a whole scheme, and keeps no copy of what you replaced.
Questions
The things
people ask first.
Is it safe to change the Windows sound scheme?
Yes. Sound events live in HKCU, the part of the registry that belongs to your own user account, and that is the only place Chimer writes. No system file is replaced, no DLL is patched, and nothing runs elevated. The worst outcome of a pack you dislike is a sound you dislike.
Can I get the original Windows sounds back?
Yes, and you do not have to remember what they were. A restore point is saved before every apply, holding the raw value and type of each event exactly as Windows had it. Events that were silent come back silent — Windows spells silence as an empty value, and roughly a third of a stock install is silent.
Do I need administrator rights?
No. Everything happens in your own user hive, so Chimer never asks for elevation. It also means the change follows your account rather than the machine: anyone else signing in to the same PC keeps their own sounds.
Can I use my own sound files?
Yes. Build a custom pack by naming it and choosing a .wav for each event you care about. Custom packs stay on your machine — nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create.
Which versions of Windows are supported?
Windows 10 version 1809 or later, and Windows 11. Chimer uses the WebView2 runtime already present on those versions, so there is no extra runtime to install. It does not run on macOS or Linux, which have no equivalent sound scheme to rewrite.
Ready when you are
Give your Windows
a little more character.
Free, open source, and made for the sounds you remember.
Windows is a Microsoft trademark. This project is not affiliated with Microsoft.