54. How Do I Disable The Windows XP Splash Screen

The windows splash screen looks quite elegant as you boot up your machine but, at the same time, it does hide valuable information. Beneath this superficial cover a host of other things are going on which are invisible to the user. As each and every action XP undertakes the detail is recorded on the screen beneath the Windows Splash Screen. If you feel you want to know what drivers are being loaded and everything else that is happening during the loading of XP you can easily disable the Windows Splash Screen.

Click the Start button.
From the Start menu Right Click My Computer.
From the drop down menu select, Properties.
In the My Computer Properties Windows click the Advanced Tab.
From the Advanced tab click the Settings button in the section marked 'Startup and Recovery'.
Once the Startup and Recovery window has opened click the Edit button.
A copy of your Boot ini file will now open in notepad.
Take a look at the contents of the boot ini file and you should see a line which looks like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

To the end of this line add the following: /SOS.
The line should now look like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /SOS

Now go to File on the main notepad toolbar and click Save to save your changes.
Close Notepad and Exit the other open windows.
When you restart your PC you will simply see a list of drivers, etc as they load. The splash screen will no longer be visible.
To re-enable the splash screen follow the instructions above and remove the /SOS switch.