Disable Startup Programs

Windows has a facility that allows programs to automatically load during system startup. Look in the Windows System tray (near the system clock) and you will see icons for applications that
start automatically with Windows.While it is convenient to have instant messaging
clients, browsers, mail programs and little programs like sticky notes load
automatically with Windows, this does slow down things significantly.
There are two ways to selectively disable startup applications. You can do
this manually by clicking ‘Start | Run’ and typing ‘msconfig’ in the ‘Run’ text box.
When the System Configuration Utility appears, click the ‘Startup’ tab. Go through
the list of programs and selectively unselect any that you think are useless.Take care not to
unselect any Windows System programs, anti-virus programs or required applications

Alternatively, use a tool like AutoRuns (search for it on www.microsoft. com)

to achieve the same thing. The AutoRuns application will give you a list
of all programs that start while booting Windows. Again, take care to deselect
only those programs that don’t need to load automatically. Skype, for instance,
can be opened manually without any problems, while Explorer.exe on the other
hand, which is displayed by AutoRuns,needs to always start with Windows. In
addition, any programs associated with Word, Photoshop Elements and the
Real Player 10.5 Gold or Winamp must be unselected. You should also start
Quicktime, Adobe Reader, iTunes or NeroShowTime manually.Lastly ,after all
new setting restart the PC to see the difference..surely boot up will be much faster.