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If this superb mellow electronic tune sounds familiar, it's because it played as part of the "out of box experience" immediately after a Windows XP install at first boot, assuming the sound drivers were installed. It was only ever played once too, so many people never heard this tune at all.
It was actually created by Stan LePard back in 1996, separately from Windows, but Microsoft made the great decision to include it in Windows XP. It's therefore become the biggest worldwide hit that no one's ever heard of and never made the singles charts. Now that's some irony.
Unfortunately, for some reason, Microsoft only included a heavily compressed, lossy, mono version even though the computers of 2001 were perfectly capable of playing stereo CD quality uncompressed WAV files and there was plenty of space on the installation CD, so one didn't hear it at its best. However, I've now discovered the original, CD quality, uncompressed stereo version - and it's glorious!
I hope you love it as much as I do.
Here's the full quality SoundCloud version where you can download the original uncompressed stereo full CD quality by clicking the down arrow in the SoundCloud window below. Note the full title of the track given there:
Stan created lots of other music too, which you can listen to on SoundCloud.
Unfortunately, Stan LePard died in 2021:
wiki.guildwars2.com
Here's a shorter, remixed version from Stan made in 2020 that sounds a bit different and just as great. This can be downloaded for free, too.
Here's a superb remix by Kaya. It maintains the core sound of the original whilst sounding significantly different. This one's good enough for repeat play too, a fantastic homage to the original and it's even the same playing length too.
Here's a third party odd sounding, super slow version:
Here's where the tune can be found in a Windows XP installation, just click on the file to play it. Note that the later 64-bit Windows XP version released in 2005 unfortunately omitted it.
C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma
Finally, here's a nod to the YouTube video where I discovered this top quality version the other day. It's exactly the same as the SoundCloud version but doesn't sound quite as good due to YouTube's lossy compression and can't be downloaded. See the video description for details.
It was actually created by Stan LePard back in 1996, separately from Windows, but Microsoft made the great decision to include it in Windows XP. It's therefore become the biggest worldwide hit that no one's ever heard of and never made the singles charts. Now that's some irony.
Unfortunately, for some reason, Microsoft only included a heavily compressed, lossy, mono version even though the computers of 2001 were perfectly capable of playing stereo CD quality uncompressed WAV files and there was plenty of space on the installation CD, so one didn't hear it at its best. However, I've now discovered the original, CD quality, uncompressed stereo version - and it's glorious!
I hope you love it as much as I do.Here's the full quality SoundCloud version where you can download the original uncompressed stereo full CD quality by clicking the down arrow in the SoundCloud window below. Note the full title of the track given there:
Stan created lots of other music too, which you can listen to on SoundCloud.
Unfortunately, Stan LePard died in 2021:
Stan LePard - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)
Here's a shorter, remixed version from Stan made in 2020 that sounds a bit different and just as great. This can be downloaded for free, too.
Here's a superb remix by Kaya. It maintains the core sound of the original whilst sounding significantly different. This one's good enough for repeat play too, a fantastic homage to the original and it's even the same playing length too.
Here's a third party odd sounding, super slow version:
Here's where the tune can be found in a Windows XP installation, just click on the file to play it. Note that the later 64-bit Windows XP version released in 2005 unfortunately omitted it.
C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma
Finally, here's a nod to the YouTube video where I discovered this top quality version the other day. It's exactly the same as the SoundCloud version but doesn't sound quite as good due to YouTube's lossy compression and can't be downloaded. See the video description for details.
