The blaring 'ding, ding, ding, dong' sound that plays when you start Windows is up there near the top of my list of worst noises. In fact, for me, it's even worse than nails down a blackboard, a baby crying, or someone making a balloon animal. The good news is, the startup noise can be turned off very easily.

Simply access the Control Panel from the Windows Start menu and select 'Sounds and Audio devices'. Click the 'Sounds' tab and take a look in the 'Program Events' section. Scroll down and find the 'Start Windows' event. Highlight it and choose 'None' from the 'Sounds' drop-down window. If you want, here you can add your own customised startup sound by locating the audio file on your computer using the 'Browse' button. Anything has to be better than that grating default noise.