Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Disabling the System Boot Screen

Windows 7 has a new high-resolution animated boot screen that looks much better than the previous Windows boot screens. The flag animation sure is a nice loading screen, but is it really worth an extra fraction of a second when your computer is loading? Disabling the boot screen can cut down on your boot time. Keep in mind that every fraction of a second counts.

This performance improvement works on a simple principle. It takes time for the computer to do anything. Taking away some work the hardware has to do, such as loading the boot screen, frees up time that it can spend loading your system files instead.

The process for disabling the system boot screen is similar to the process for modifying the default operating system timeout. For this change, you need to start up the System Configuration tool:

1. Click the Start menu, type msconfig in the Search box, and press Enter.
2. When the System Configuration tool loads, click the Boot tab.
3. Locate the No GUI boot check box and check it.
4. Click OK to close the System Configuration tool.
5. A small window will pop up and ask you whether you would like to reboot your computer now or reboot later. Make sure you have any open documents closed, and click Restart.
6. After your computer has restarted, the System Configuration tool may load automatically notifying you of the change. Check the box that says Don't show this message or start System Configuration when Windows starts and click OK.

After you close the System Configuration tool and reboot, the boot screen will be gone and you will have saved your computer from doing extra work while loading Windows 7 on your computer.