Does your your computer take forever to boot up? Are you waiting for the ‘hourglass’ to disappear after Windows loads before you can open any programs? The problem may be that you have too many programs set to automatically start up when Windows loads. Most of these
programs load themselves in your ‘Startup’ list automatically without your permission. Common programs that will infest your Startup list when you install them are printer drivers, video card drivers, Microsoft Office, media players and many other types of programs. Some are useful, while others just take up time and PC resources. The simple way to stop these programs from loading is to:

1. Create a folder somewhere on your Hard Drive entitled ‘Unused Startup Icons’

2. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the following directory; C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
.
3. Cut any icons that appear in this window if you believe they are not required for any important programs and Paste them into the ‘Unused Startup Icons’ folder that you created in Step 1

4. If you have inadvertently removed an icon for a program that was required to startup with Windows, you can restore it by copying and pasting the icon back into the directory outlined in Step 2.
.
By removing these icons you are not uninstalling the program itself, you are just stopping it from booting up when Windows loads.
If you can get your Startup programs down to the bare essentials, you should notice that your computer should load a lot faster.
Some programs infest themselves deeper within Startup and do not appear in the directory specified above.
adapted from CC newsletter #132
from Heather Smith ~ MYOB Certified Consultant