Ajax Loading block

I'm trying to optimize the speed of my site, and am wondering a few things.
1. What is the purpose of the ajax loading block on the site? Is it just a visual loading screen or is something actually happening when that appears on the site?
2. How would I go about disable this from the site if I wanted to test out performance without?

Hello,

This is a simple loader effect added to display over the content of the page while the HTML CSS and JavaScript is loading. It will not have any effect on the performance of your website. If you don't like to have it you can remove it very easy. Open the _Root.Head.cshtml razor view file, located in the \Themes\Uptown\Views\Shared folder, locate and delete this line of code:

    <div class=" loader-overlay">
    <div class="loader"></div></div>