Where is the full version of the music that plays when you start Windows 98 for the first time?

A customer was presumably exercising the unlimited support part of their support contract when they asked, “Where is the full song for the music that plays when you start Windows 98 for the first time? The Welcome application plays only the first 30 seconds. Can you send us the rest of the song?”

I guess the IT department really likes that music and wants the extended dance remix for their late-night raves. (If you stick it out, there’s a special appearance in the linked video of the screen I wrote.)

The music was commissioned to be 30 seconds long. There is no extended version of the song, or at least not one that Microsoft acquired the rights to. The original composer could have written a five-minute version and sent Microsoft only the first 30 seconds, or maybe the piece is only 30 seconds long to begin with. All we know is that we have a 30-second music clip.

Follow-up: A reddit user tracked down the composer from a brief mention in the production notes for the movie Stick It: “Mike [Simpson] also composed the “Welcome to Windows 98″ theme for Microsoft.” Read on to find out what happened to the full version.