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, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

. A bootsplash can be a simple visualization of the scrolling boot messages in the console, but it can also present graphics or some combinations of both. Unlike splash screens, 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, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

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, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

, the default boot screen is represented by a green indeterminate progress indicator. The boot screen can be changed so that it displays a static image of an

aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

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

Windows 7

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearl ...

, 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 Windows Preinstallation Environment (also known as Windows PE and WinPE) is a lightweight version of Windows used for the deployment of PCs, workstations, and servers, or troubleshooting an operating system while it is offline. It is intended t ...

, 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 released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

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 UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a set of specifications written by the UEFI Forum. They define the architecture of the platform firmware used for booting and its interface for interaction with the operating system. Examples ...

boot, the boot screen is displayed in highest resolution available. If the ACPI 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 and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

– uses

Direct Rendering Manager 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 ...

(DRM) and KMS driver * Splashy – a graphical boot process designed to replace the aging Bootsplash program * usplash – former bootsplash program used by Ubuntu * XSplash – new splash program used by Ubuntu starting from 9.10 * bootanimation - a simple splash for

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

OS just showing some decompressed images.

Microsoft Windows

Windows Vista

Windows 7

Windows 8 and later

Linux distributions

See also

References

Further reading