screen too brief

No method to increase the screen display time. How about take a video using a mobile-phone, and then stop the frame.

If you are referring to the list before some "splash" screen, you should be able to disable the splash screen in the BIOS.

I'm not sure what computer you have but most providers have a way to disable the splash.

Here is an example showing a splash screen:
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001369.htm

Go into the BIOS and disable Fast Boot.

Not sure the intent is to disable fast boot as it is wanting to see all the POST messages.

i thought fast boot started with win8. this is win7.

If it is in BIOS, it isn't "Windows".

I think here you can use "fast" and "quick" interchangeably.   Quick/Fast Boot is in some BIOS settings:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/217052/speed_up_boot_time.html

Alternatively, look for an option called 'Fast Boot' or 'Quick Boot'; enable it, and it will likely dispense with any startup testing and go straight to booting Windows.

If you can tell us more about what you are trying to achieve we can probably provide more detailed suggestions.

Do you want to see the POST messages or just see "some" or what?

what i'm trying to achieve might be called slow boot. i want to be able to read the screens that show for too short a time to read during boot up. i normally only reboot once a month for updates, so i don't care about fast boots.
my bios is Award Software International, Inc. Version      F11 Date      08/10/2010 if that helps.

>>i want to be able to read the screens that show for too short a time to read during boot up

Anything in particular you are looking for?  99% of the time it shows things like devices found, memory found, etc...  All that you should already know.

A lot depends on what is displayed by the different devices.  Some of the information you might not be able to control.  For example, I had a machine with a RAID controller built in.  It would show what devices were found when it scanned for them.  That information disappeared pretty quick.  I'm not sure you can slow that down.  There was a quick display to hit CTRL-M (or something similar) to enter the card setup similar to entering BIOS.

I believe the only option you have is to show ALL POST messages and disable any splash screen.

I suppose you can video it as suggested above if you absolutely MUST see it all at your leisure.

>>my bios is Award Software International

You can do the same thing I would have to do:  Google/Bing it and look for the options to remove any splash screen.

Yes, film the screen - surely the easiest way to get hold of that info.

fantastic! i have been irritated by this for years. thank you very much.

sometimes the solution is sooo simple - i wish i could answer like that to more questions...