Utilize Splash Screen Startup in Windows!

Most people never bother what is going on with their PCs when it is starting up/booting. They just flick/press the start button, and then went doing some of their stuffs while the PC loads (some people just have slow startups that take up more than a few minutes).

For people who wants to know what their PC is doing during the startup process, here's a useful option: turn on the splash screen for startup! When the splash screen is turned on, it shows you all the system files loaded during the boot process, a brief detail of your Windows version and hardware specifications, the hard disk-checking procedure and even boot-time antivirus scanning! (if your antivirus are capable of boot time scanning). Of course, it comes with a little sacrifice: by turning on the splash screen, you'll no longer have the normal boot screen which makes your computer screen during startup clean and tidy.

Example of a splash screen startup on Windows XP. Click picture for larger image.

To turn on windows splash screen in Vista, follow the simple steps below:

1. On your desktop, click the start button.

2. Click the "Run" option (if it's not present, use the Windows+R combination key)

3. In the "Run" windows, type 'msconfig' (short form for Microsoft System Configuration)

4. System Configuration will pop up. Click on the 'boot' tab.

5. On the boot options, find an option which reads "OS boot information". If the box is checked, it means that your computer has already been configured for splash screen. Check the box to enable splash screen if it is blank (as shown below).


6. Press 'Apply' and then 'OK'. System Configuration will ask for a restart. If you wish to restart now, save all your current work before doing so.

7. When the computer restarts, you should see that the screen shows all the boot process of your operating system. To undo splash screen, simply follow step 1 to step 5 and uncheck the box.

To turn on Splash Screen in XP:

1. Repeat step 1 to step 4 in Vista's method. (Notice that in XP, the boot tab is called the BOOT.INI)

2. On the BOOT.INI tab, find an option called /SOS. If it's checked then your XP has already been configured for splash screen startup. Check the box if it is blank.

3. Apply, OK and restart your PC. Your XP startup should show the boot process...:)


I encourage you to turn on splash screen for one good reason: if your PC crashes during the startup process, by enabling splash screen, you can identify the specific process that causes the crash. Another thing is that it gives you the sense of satisfaction knowing that your computer is functioning properly. Imagine that your PC hangs during startup with no splash screen turned on...everything is just black and blank-you might sit up and wait for a whole hour before concluding that your PC hangs, which is a complete waste of time!

IT professionists can even use splash screen to identify the reason why your computer boots slowly. Fantastic function, right?