Remove the Windows bootup splash screen

Helpline Q&A Directory

Sometimes it's helpful to view what's going on during bootup. On the other hand, I don't need to know that I'm loading Windows 98. Is there some way I can remove the splash screen that appears whenever Windows is booting up?

You can turn off the splash screen or exchange the corporate splash screen to something more pleasing than a Microsoft or hardware vendor logo. Microsoft's Tweak UI utility for Windows (available from PC Advisor's Download Directory or from www.microsoft.com) makes turning off the screen easy. Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, and double-click Tweak UI. Click the Boot tab, uncheck 'Display splash screen while booting', and click ok.

If you don't have Tweak UI, then you must edit msdos.sys. Select Start, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt. In the MS-DOS window, type attrib -r -s -h c:\msdos.sys (use hyphens for the dashes and make sure to leave a space in front of each one), and then press Enter. Next, type notepad c:\msdos.sys. After you press Enter, msdos.sys will come up in Notepad.

If the line 'Logo=1' is there, change it to Logo=0. If it isn't there, add the line Logo=0 just below the line that reads '[Options]'. Save the file and close Notepad. In the DOS window, type attrib +r +s +h c:\msdos.sys (the same as the first command only with plus signs instead of hyphens), and press Enter. Close the window.

Changing the logo is harder. In Explorer, view the C drive. Select View, Folder Options (or View, Options). On the View tab, select 'Show all files', and click ok. Look for a file called logo.sys; if it's there, rename it something like oldlogo.sys.

Go to the graphics program of your choice and create or load the file you want to replace the old logo with. The new file should be a BMP image file with 256 colours and sized 640x400 pixels. Resize the image to 320x400 (Windows' boot process stretches the file horizontally from 320 to 640).

If you're using Windows' Paint, select Image, Stretch/Skew. In the Stretch section for Horizontal, enter 50 percent and click ok. When you save the file, name it C:\logo.sys. The next time you boot up, you will see your image.