Article: Prevent Programs From Auto Starting With MSCONFIGStop Programs From Auto Starting When XP Boots Up By Using MSCONFIGThis tweak will give you a fairly large performance boot. What most people don't know is that every time you boot your computer a whole mess of "hidden" programs load in the background. To access this list, do the following:
Click
Start, then
Run. Type
msconfig, then click
OK
Click on the
Startup tab, then uncheck programs you don’t want starting (by starting, I mean that these programs are
always running, so by disabling them they won’t auto start but don’t worry, these programs will still be accessible). In XP Essential programs are loaded through something called "Windows Services." This means that most of the startup items you see in XP are completely optional and can be turned off. As a good rule of thumb if you don’t recognize the program name leave it on. If you see one that is blank (see below example)
DEFINITELY DISABLE IT. These are usually spyware or viruses and you definitely don’t want them starting with your computer. When I see these I always run a Virus Check, then scan for Spyware.

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Reboot your computer and you should notice faster performance.
[/blockquote]This guide was written by Jason LeDuc. Copyright © 2005-2006. All rights reserved.