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.