From the Start menu go to Settings then Control Panel and double click the Sounds icon.

In the Sounds Properties panel you can select Windows events and pre-view the sound that's built in. You can replace that sound by one of your own by clicking on the Browse button, going through the menus till you find where you've saved your own favourite wavs, clicking on a sound, then choosing Apply. Sounds used must be in wav format.

Long wavs can be shortened to just give the bit you want if you load them using Sound Recorder, which you will find if you click Start . . . Programs . . . Accessories . . . Entertainment . . . Sound Recorder.. Using the Edit menu you can cut off bits of the sound by selecting Delete before current position and Delete after current position. There are a number of wavs on my sounds page (Downloads button) that you could use in this way.

My advice is to only change sound events that happen infrequently, such as Starting Windows and Exit Windows, otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy (and I don't mean Celtic Crazy).

In Outlook Express, start up a new message. On the Format menu choose Background then Sound. Now choose Browse and move through the directories till you find the sound you want. Select it then choose Open. If a sound you believe to be there does not appear you may have to click on the little down arrow next to the name and make a selection so that the relevant file types (usually midi files) are displayed. Now you have a choice about how many times the sound plays. Be nice! Don't make it continuous. In this you can use wav files or midi files. See more of this in the tips for making Championship e-mails.