Back when Windows 95 was first released there was an optional add-on purchase called Microsoft Plus! This added in screen savers, wallpaper, some styling changes and of course, WAV sound effects.

Several of these sound effect packages are still available direct for download from Microsoft’s web site. You can get them from here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/135315

Scroll down slightly more than half way and download the files Jungle.exe, Musica.exe, Robotz.exe and Utopia.exe.

The way to install these sounds on Windows XP is to first create a blank folder, download the .exe file to there and run it. A command prompt window will appear. Press Y to extract the files. Afterward, right-click the .INF file and left click Install. This will install the WAV sound set as a selectable sound theme in Windows XP.

I haven’t tried this in Vista or 7 but I assume it would work the same way. Again I will say that I have not tried it in Vista or 7, so do so at your own risk.

And yes, I understand that this not all the sound sets from the Plus! pack. “Science”, “The ’60s”, “Golden Era” and a few others are missing. However it’s better than nothing.

For those that remember the classic MacOS sounds, don’t worry because you’re not left out.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19079

This includes all the sounds in both AIFF and WAV format, so they will play in Mac or Windows.

It includes all the ones you remember, such as Droplet, Indigo, Monkey, Quack, Sosumi and several others.

This is a plain ZIP file so you’ll have to manually place the sounds where they’re supposed to go. In Windows the folder for this is C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA.

Got a place for cool WAV sound effects?

Feel free to post a link or two below.