A bootsplash, also known as a bootscreen, is a graphical representation of the boot process of the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

. A bootsplash can be a simple visualization of the scrolling boot messages in the

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

, but it can also present graphics or some combinations of both. Unlike

splash screen A splash screen is a graphical control element consisting of a window containing an image, a logo, and the current version of the software. A splash screen can appear while a game or program is launching. A splash page is an introduction page on a ...

s, a bootsplash is not necessarily designed for marketing purposes; it can be intended to enhance the experience of the user as eye candy, or provide the user with messages (with an added advantage of color-coding facility) to diagnose the state of the system.

Microsoft Windows

All versions of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Windows feature a boot screen, which is loaded during the startup process. With extra, third-party utilities, it is possible to replace the default Windows boot screen with custom images, text, and/or animations.

Windows Vista

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

, the default boot screen is represented by a green indeterminate

progress indicator A progress indicator is an element of a command-line interface, a textual user interface, or a graphical user interface that is intended to inform the user that an operation is in progress, to reassure that the system is not hung or waiting for u ...

. The boot screen can be changed so that it displays a static image of an

aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

with the text, "Starting Windows Vista" by enabling the "No GUI boot" option within the Windows System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe). Microsoft would update the aurora image throughout the lifecycle of the operating system, starting with the first

service pack In computing, a service pack comprises a collection of updates, fixes, or enhancements to a software program delivered in the form of a single installable package. Companies often release a service pack when the number of individual patches to a ...

, where it was altered to match the image displayed during the operating system's

hibernation Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic reduction entered by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is mos ...

screen.

Windows 7

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

, the boot screen will initially display the "Starting Windows" text, then a Windows flag animation will appear at the center of the screen. On unsupported systems, and sometimes when booting into recovery environment, the

boot screen will be used instead as the fallback. Changes of the boot screen, although possible through third-party utilities, is extremely risky and may cause the system to be unable to boot. Also, the hidden "Aurora" boot screen was removed.

Windows 8 and later

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, made available for download via Microsoft ...

and later, the boot screen will display the Windows logo along with the loading circle. On

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boot, the boot screen is displayed in 1024×768 resolution, and the boot screen is squished to accommodate for the 16:9 aspect ratio. On

UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI, as an acronym) is a Specification (technical standard), specification for the firmware Software architecture, architecture of a computing platform. When a computer booting, is powered on, the UEFI ...

boot, the boot screen is displayed in highest resolution available. If the

ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is an open standard that operating systems can use to discover and configure computer hardware components, to perform power management (e.g. putting unused hardware components to sleep), auto con ...

BGRT table is present, the boot screen will display the OEM logo instead.

Linux distributions

* Bootsplash – the first and original implementation of a Linux kernel bootsplash, superseded by Splashy * fbsplash – Gentoo implementation as bootsplash program *

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

– uses

Direct Rendering Manager The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) is a subsystem of the Linux kernel responsible for interfacing with Graphics processing unit, GPUs of modern video cards. DRM exposes an Application programming interface, API that user-space programs can use t ...

(DRM) and

KMS driver The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) is a subsystem of the Linux kernel responsible for interfacing with GPUs of modern video cards. DRM exposes an API that user-space programs can use to send commands and data to the GPU and perform operations s ...

* Splashy – a graphical boot process designed to replace the aging Bootsplash program *

usplash Usplash is a software project in the Ubuntu community. Historically, scrolling text "verbose mode" has typically appeared on Linux computers during boot. Usplash replaces the scrolling-text screens with a graphical splash screen. It was design ...

– former bootsplash program used by

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

* XSplash – new splash program used by Ubuntu starting from 9.10 * bootanimation - a simple splash for Android OS just showing some decompressed images.

Microsoft Windows

Windows Vista

Windows 7

Windows 8 and later

Linux distributions

See also

References

Further reading