Good article, but there is one thing. You seem to be implying that using -nosplash makes SSMS start faster. If you actually time it (I did before I posted this) it starts in the same amount of time regardless of the setting (3 seconds on my box). If a splash screen is implemented correctly, it never slows down the start up of the application, it just gives the user something to look at when they start up the app so they have immediate feedback and don't try starting the app again because they think "did I start that?"

OK, with that said, I suppose if you have some killer machine and your SSMS starts almost instantly with –nosplash and slower without using –nosplash that may mean that Microsoft put in a minimum time to show the splash screen so the splash would not flash.

Thanks,

Jim