What is the purpose of the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Ringtones folder in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2?

Solution 1:

The following blog post of Long Zheng explains the details about Microsoft's Ringtones folder:

You see, I thought we had all learned a lesson with the Crazy Frog and ringtones based entirely on repeating single-syllable words, but apparently not. BingTones are now invading public places around the world. In a bid to maintain social order, I come offering some ringtones from Windows 7.

As part of Windows 7′s new foundation for managing communication applications at a system level (for example, lowering the volume or muting your music when you receive a call on Skype), the operating system actually now ships with ten soundclips which can be used as ringtones, stored as WMA files under the “%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Ringtones” folder, for your personalization.

There is of course nothing stopping these ringtones from being also used on a mobile phone.

I'm also copying the text in Microsoft's link in case of link rot:

Windows 7: Building Great Audio Communications Applications

Using the PC as a phone is central to the future of communications, and this session will provide you with the essentials to build the end to end experience. Windows 7 provides APIs for integrating communications capabilities into your applications. This session covers attenuating and muting sounds during a phone call, receiving a phone call using a Bluetooth headset, improving the latency of a phone call, and selecting the appropriate communications device.

Solution 2:

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 use the same kernel. It is probably just common code that was borrowed, and used for both OS'es, and by accident they left that directory there on Server 2008 R2.

I can confirm that both directories exist exactly as you decribe on other clean systems.