Speed up your Windows Startup
After you have had your computer for some years, you might start to get into the habit of pressing the power button then leaving to do something else while your computer starts up. This is not the way it should be, and it should be corrected as much as possible.
STEP 1: STARTUP PROGRAMS
You can access these by opening "RUN" from the Start Menu, and typing Msconfig. Click ok and a window like the one above should pop up.
Go to the startup tag and uncheck every one you don't need.
BUT WHICH ONES DO I NEED?
Good Question, and the only answer I can give you is to do a search online for each of the .exe entries. It is up to you to decide if you need a program to run at startup, but as a general rule; if you can open it when you need it, there should be no reason why it should be on the startup list unless you use it ALL THE TIME.
STEP 2: SERVICES
Services are components that run in the background and make things work... or just suck up your RAM usage. To configure these for optimal speed, we should open the Start Menu again, click RUN, and type services.msc. This will bring up the window above, from which you can edit your Services configuration.
To edit your preferences, double click on a service, and select either Automatic, Manual, or Disabled from the dropdown menu next to Startup Type
BUT WHICH ONES DO I DISABLE?
Again, a very good question. To start with, things like "Java Quick Starter" or "Adobe Speed Launch" which you probably took away from the startup list in step 1.
You can also take away services that come as a default with Windows XP that you don't really need. For a very accurate and detailed description, go to Blackviper.com
STEP 3: DEFRAGMENT YOUR HARD DRIVE
The final step, for a detailed explanation go to our defrag page