You can do this now as you read...
Click START
Click RUN
Enter msconfig
Click OK
On the Startup tab you can see all the rubbish that is pre-fetched into memory at startup time, slowing things down - my list has about 20 entries but only the first six are enabled.
Disable as many as you wish - best to leave any security / protection programmes ticked.
Reboot.
Also...
Download Windows defender (free) Check running programmes at any time with the Software Explorer feature
Download Spybot Search & Destroy (free) Run weekly
Download Piriform's CCleaner (free) Tidy Registry with it
Defragment your disk
Peccavi
February 2009