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.