TipHub

You might be surprised how many things gets launched when you start up your computer. There are two places you can look at to disable applications on startup:

"Start" menu> "Programs" > "Startup"

There is nothing in here that you should "really" need or you can't launch upon startup. Most of the important applications are run through system services. To play safe just cut and paste these files to a different location, reboot and see if you really need them. Chances are if you haven't used them in a week or so you don't really need them.

Windows Key + R, type in "msconfig" then hit [enter] and go to the "Startup" tab.

This is a great tool to check on your startup items. Just uncheck and click on apply. You can always re-enable them later. Note that there will be things in there that you may not know. What I do is look at the "Command" column if it has "Program FilesSomething" generally "Something" is the name of the program that it's running. Try disabling those first, remember if you are unsure google it or test it out. There should be nothing in here that will stop your computer from booting up.