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Having to sit through the entire Windows boot process can give even the best of us a headache. Why must we wait – and wait – and WAIT? Matthew has discovered a way to bypass some of the usual rigamarole, and he’s sharing it with all of you in his screencast this week.

All you need to do is click into your Start menu, and type in msconfig. After you hit the Enter key to bring up the proper window, click on the Boot tab. Place a checkmark in the box that says No GUI Boot. This simply disables the Windows splash screen that comes up – saving you a little bit of time and heartache.

This works in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. From this screen, you can also change several other settings on your computer. You can change the timeout length from when you select your hard disk or operating disk on boot.

On the msconfig startup and services tabs, you can choose to deselect unnecessary items. Do NOT make any changes to these areas if you aren’t sure of what you’re doing, or of what an item is. Always do some research on Google to put a meaning to each item listed before deciding whether or not you need it.

Thanks, Matt, for an excellent screencast full of tips for our community!

How to Speed Up Windows Startup

To add to my lengthy list of Windows Vista annoyances: what’s up with the abnormally bland boot screen?! I’m all for decreasing clutter and all, but a simple progress bar seems so incomplete (then again, so does the rest of Vista). Brandon showed me a quick trick the other night when he was helping me with one of my AMD desktops. I’ve been told that this trick should only be used on newer / faster machines. You’ll need to have administrative privileges to get ‘er working right. Either use the Run command or a CMD prompt to enter:

bcdedit /set quietboot 1

Should make your Windows Vista startup animation a bit more… animated? Dunno. I’m all for abolishing the boot process altogether. When my home office furniture arrives this weekend, I’ll finally be able to start playing with the Mac Mini that Ponzi gave me for Christmas. I’ve already set up the Parallels beta that allows me to access my Boot Camp Windows installation from within OS X (and “Coherence” is beyond astounding).

A Better Vista Boot Screen