Turning Off The Windows Splash Screen Will Save Time Off Your Boot

No one seriously needs to be reminded they’re running Windows while the computer is loading the OS, right? Turning off the Windows splash screen ought to cut a little bit off of system boot time. For most systems, this generally works, but we never saw an average improvement of more than two seconds—and even less on Vista systems (probably because in lieu of the animated progress bar, you get a colorful Aurora). Still, a second is a second....

XP: At the Run prompt, type msconfig. Click the BOOT.INI tab, and select the
/NOGUIBOOT option.

Very similar for Vista: Run msconfig, click the Boot tab, and select the No GUI Boot option.