Ever wonder what's going on behind that splash screen?  Well, now you can find out!

To disable the Windows XP Splash Screen, follow the next steps:

1. Right click My Computer, select Properties.
    

2. Click the Advanced tab.
    

3. In the Startup and Recovery click the Edit button (see picture 1).

   Picture 1

4. Edit BOOT.INI. Add "/SOS" right after "/fastdetect" with a space between (see picture 2).

   Picture 2

The line will look something like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /SOS.  When you're finished.  The first part, multi(0)..... may not be the same on your machine.  Upon restarting, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new /SOS switch.