[devil_himself]

You can disable the Window XP boot logo (the gray screen that appears right after you start your computer), which will shave a few seconds off your booting time. To do this follow these steps:

1. Go to the 'C:\' folder and double-click on the 'boot.ini' file
2. On the 'timeout' line, change the 30 to 1 so it reads 'timeout=1'
3. On the last line, insert '/noguiboot' right after '/fastdetect'.
This line should now look something like this:
\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noguiboot /NoExecute=OptIn
4. Click on the 'File' menu and select 'Save'
5. Reboot your computer and the Windows XP logo should now be gone

Note: Do not change anything else in this file or your computer may not reboot correctly or may not reboot at all.

[1002richards]

Personally I would not want to alter anything in this file. The possible harm outweighs the slight gain of a few seconds.
I think people are better off going to start > run > enter mscofig and then checking what progs are running at start up. These are generally easier to identify using websites via Google to check the jargon / acronyms to see if they really do need to run at start up. Some progs are essential, others are not critical but do so through default options accepted on installation.
I'm a cautious laptop user and msconfig suits my needs.

Richard

[ferrija1]

That just keeps the logo from showing, it doesn't make anything faster.

[gurutech]

There's also small pictures downloadable from www.bootskin.com that you can actually change the boot screen to a different picture.