How to change the startup sound for Windows 7

I just installed Windows 7 and I am pleased.  It has run all day without a problem.

Back in the old days of Windows 98 I used to have my own sound ("Greetings") when I started windows.  The capability to customize the startup sound is not there in windows 7:  you can either use the default windows startup sound (cling-cling, cling-cling) or no sound at all.

So, I searched the web.

What you need to know is that this is a  hack, and if you screw your computer up, it's your problem, O.K.?  If you want to continue, know that you could really mess things up: you do so at your own risk.   This worked for me, but I take no responsibility for errors or omissions.  This is the web, right?


If you are new at registry hacks, PRACTICE ON A COMPUTER YOU DON"T CARE ABOUT FIRST.

First, you need to find the file that controls the windows startup sound.  It is called "imageres.dll" and it is found in the windows directory.  In my computer it was:


   C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll

Next, you need to change the ownership of this file.  This file cannot be overwritten or modified without ownership, so I used these instructions:

http://www.blogsdna.com/2159/how-to-take-ownership-grant-permissions-to-access-files-folder-in-windows-7.htm

Next, you need a file that allows you to edit the dll file.  I downloaded that from

http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/ftp/tools/ResHack.zip

After I unzipped ResHack, I ran it as an Administrator.  I then opened the imageres.dll file, made a copy of the original in to safe place, and then opened the file again in the system32 folder.

I expanded WAVE and 5080 as shown, and there is a resource called 1033.

If you click on Play WAVE you will hear the windows startup sound.

The next step is to right click on the resource 1033, and select "Replace Resource"

You will see this menu:

 Click on "Open File With New Resource" and navigate to a .wav file of your choice.

(In this example I am using a file called "alerted.wav")

 

Click on "Open", then put "WAVE" in as the resource type, "5080" (or whatever number that folder is labeled) is as Resource Name., and "1033" or whatever number is indicated as Resource Language.

Click "Replace". Then save in the original location and quit ResHack.

Right click on your desktop, select Personalize from the menu, click on Sounds, and check the Play Windows Startup sound and click "Apply".

When you restart, it should work,  if not, ask someone who knows what they are doing for help.

Comments:  Some people commented that they could not get this to work.  You need to run ResHack as an administrator, or else you won't get it to work.  Also, I received some comments obviously written by a child.  If you are a child playing with your parents computer, don't do this!

If you have trouble saving the changes, it is because you didn't take ownership of the .dll.  The child that posted a comment that this couldn't be done obviously omitted this step.  More detailed instructions are below.

How to Take Ownership in Windows 7

1. Locate the file or folder on which you want to take ownership in windows explorer

2. Right click on file or folder and select “Properties” from Context Menu

3. Click on Security tab

4. Click on “Advanced”

5. Now click on Owner tab in Advance Security Settings for User windows

6. Click on Edit Button and select user from given Change Owner to list if user or group is not in given list then click on other users or groups. Enter name of user/group and click ok.

8. Now select User/group and click apply and ok. (Check “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” if you have files and folder within selected folder)

9. Click ok when Windows Security Prompt is displayed

10. Now Owner name must have changed.

11. Now click Ok to exist from Properties windows

Once you have taken the ownership of file or folder next part comes is Granting Permissions to that file/folder or object.

How to Grant Permissions in Windows 7

1. Locate the file or folder on which you want to take ownership in windows explorer

2. Right click on file or folder and select “Properties” from Context Menu

3. Click on Edit button in Properties windows Click ok to confirm UAC elevation request.

4. Select user/group from permission windows or click add to add other user or group.

5. Now under Permission section check the rights which you want to grant i.e check “Full Control” under the “Allow” column to assign full access rights control permissions to Administrators group.

6. Click Ok for changes to take effect and click ok final ok to exit from Properties window.

Safer, Cheaper Nuclear Power: The Nuclear Cigar

What is a traveling wave reactor and why should I care?

Readers of this blog are familiar with the potential nuclear proliferation problems of both uranium reactors and plutonium reactors.  As a quick summary, natural uranium is mostly an isotope called U238 which cannot sustain a chain reaction nor make a bomb.  To make a uranium reactor you need to "enrich" the uranium, that is, remove some of the U238 so that the concentration of U235, the uranium that works in reactors (and bombs) is increased.  The problem is that the same technology that can be used to make nuclear fuel can also make nuclear bombs.  (Iran is doing this now.)

Another fuel for bombs is Plutonium239, which can be produced in a standard nuclear reactor, and then separated out chemically from the uranium and other materials in the fuel.  It is easier to make P239 in a reactor than to separate U235 from natural uranium, but it is harder to make a working bomb.  (North Korea is taking this approach.)

P239 makes a good fuel for power generation, and it can be produced from U238, the non-fuel isotope of uranium.

Imagine a cigar made from moist tobacco leaves.  The leaves will not burn unless they are dried first.  If you light one end of the cigar with a match, the heat of the burning leaves will dry the unburned leaves and ignite them as the cigar burns from one end to the other, leaving ash behind.

A newly proposed powerplant design called a "traveling wave reactor" works like a nuclear cigar.  The cigar is a tube of unenriched uranium, mostly U238.  A little U235 acts as a match at one end to produce neutrons that will change the U238 to U239, which decays in two steps, first to neptunium and then to plutonium.  The plutonium acts as a fuel for the reactor and produces power and more neutrons that continue the process of producing new fuel from the inert U238 down the tube.  The reaction, like the glowing tip of the cigar, travels down the tube over time, leaving reaction products (spent fuel), behind and producing more fuel from the unenriched uranium.  This is the "traveling wave" reaction.


This reactor, once started, does not produce easily accessible plutonium that can be diverted to bomb making (it is very easy to tell if an operating reactor has been shut down, and if the nuclear cigar is shut down it indicates either an operational problem or a potential plutonium diversion.)  Also, the reactor only needs a small amount of enriched uranium to act as a match.  All the enriched uranium required for every reactor in the world could come from one enrichment facility.


Finally, the reactor, once started, would burn all its fuel over a period of 50 years or so, meaning no re-fueling "outages" a great cost item to nuclear reactors.  Also, the nuclear waste stays in the reactor, eliminating the need for short term storage of spent fuel over the life time of the reactor.


Nuclear power is our best possible option for clean, inexpensive energy to power the economic growth for future generations, and the nuclear cigar is one possible way to make it safe and simple.

The nuclear cigar: