The first time I tried BootVis was shortly after installing XP SP1 in August 2003.  It wouldn't work.  I forget why and I forget what the error messages were, if there were any.  It might have been a buggy hotfix or a disabled Service that kept BootVis from doing what it was supposed to, but no matter, it works now.  Because of that, I can finally comment on it.  BV does seem to perform as advertised, if not by MS then by others.  It shaved a couple of seconds off Windows XP's startup time, though I've read of bigger savings than that.  Still, if you have dickall for patience, even a couple of seconds can mean something and make BootVis worth having around.

<Update: I got an email from someone named Richard Loomer who pointed out a direct download of BootVis from MS.  This version is 1.3.36.0.  So I was wrong, they haven't quite banished it after all.  Thanks Richard.>

<More: I found another direct download at Kelly's Korner.>

<More still: I tried Bootvis with Service Pack 2.  It worked right up until the panel that reads "Bootvis: Optimizing ... Optimizing the system for boot performance" and further states that the process might take several minutes, most of the message being grayed out.  Here, it just stopped doing anything.  However the dialog went away with ALT+F4.  So I don't know what this thing is worth to me now that SP2 is installed (no change in startup time that I could tell), though BV didn't trash anything.>

<The soap opera continues: Ok I messed up... For this round, a few services that Bootvis requires were turned off (Task Scheduler, Event Log, COM+ Event System) ... turned them on by talking sexy ... This time BV got to finish, though at one point it froze and I had to force a reboot to make it let go and start a trace.  I think Zone Alarm was interfering here, for the Desktop was there and one other startup item was in the systray... but the Task Manager wouldn't come up-- was hoping to use it to kill Bootvis, no go.  Doing a hardware reset solved that problem.>

Fred Langa doubts Bootvis's worth as a boot optimizing app.  Here is a link to an item from the Langa Letter for September 2, 2004.  To quote in part:

"...Bootvis is mainly a tool for system vendors that helps them (or you) to understand where your system is spending its time during bootup. But it's NOT all that useful for making changes... So, if you let XP do its thing--- if you run Cleanup, Defrag, and so on--- the system will do what it can, on its own, to improve boot performance. Running BootVis, per se, won't really help..."

I think I'm just going to let this one go.  It seemed to do something in SP1 but with the new service pack and the negligible difference in boot time (if there was a difference at all), not to mention the rigmarole involved in getting Bootvis to finish, it's not worth the trouble, not here anyway.  Langa just sortof clinched it for me.  Besides, I feel a need to stop worrying about this stuff and get a life. :)

More on BootVis:
    - (Tweak Hound) "Bootvis, MS wassup?"
    - (Help With Windows) Improve Boot Performance
    - (Black Viper) What are the bare minimum services I need to run "bootvis?"