Skip RStudio splash screen

Nan Xiao December 17, 2024 2 min read

Skating at Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Photo by Josh Hild.

Starting with RStudio IDE version 2024.12.0+467, a redesigned splash screen replaces the previous app logo. This change was introduced in rstudio/rstudio#15347 and it looks like this:

New splash screen design in RStudio IDE 2024.12+.

While visually polished, the new splash screen feels slightly too shiny (no pun intended) and adds a delay to the perceived time before I can first interact with the UI. For research purporses, I was curious to see if skipping it was possible and I found a simple solution. The relevant file is located at:

resources/app/.webpack/renderer/splash/index.html

By replacing the first <style> block with the following line, you can make the splash screen invisible:

<style> body { display: none; } </style>

To apply this tweak, you can use the automation scripts below.

macOS

Run the following two-liner in your terminal:

file="/Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/Resources/app/.webpack/renderer/splash/index.html"; \
awk 'BEGIN{RS="</style>"; ORS=""} NR==1 {sub(/<style>[^<]*$/, "<style> body { display: none; }")}; {print $0 RS}' "$file" > "$file.tmp" && mv "$file.tmp" "$file"

Linux

On Linux, use the same awk command and adjust the file path.

For example, on Ubuntu, save this script as patch_rstudio_splash.sh:

file="/usr/lib/rstudio/resources/app/.webpack/renderer/splash/index.html"; \
awk 'BEGIN{RS="</style>"; ORS=""} NR==1 {sub(/<style>[^<]*$/, "<style> body { display: none; }")}; {print $0 RS}' "$file" > "$file.tmp" && mv "$file.tmp" "$file"

Make it executable and run it with sudo:

chmod +x patch_rstudio_splash.sh
sudo ./patch_rstudio_splash.sh

Windows

Save the following as patch_rstudio_splash.ps1:

$file = "C:\Program Files\RStudio\resources\app\.webpack\renderer\splash\index.html"

if (-Not (Test-Path -Path $file)) {
    Write-Error "File not found: $file"
    exit
}

$content = Get-Content -Raw -Path $file

$content = [regex]::Replace($content, "<style>.*?</style>", "<style> body { display: none; } </style>", 'Singleline')

Set-Content -Path $file -Value $content

Write-Output "Patch applied successfully: Splash screen is now invisible."

Open PowerShell as administrator:

Open start menu, search for “PowerShell”.
Right-click “Windows PowerShell” and select “Run as administrator”.
Click “Yes” when prompted by User Access Control.

Run the script in the privileged window:

.\patch_rstudio_splash.ps1