How to cleanup startup of Microsoft Windows

The first thing to do when cleaning out your startup is to identify what are the applications or programs that you would like to startup when the computer boots up. In general there will not be any real need for these applications unless you are running a server.

Once you have identified these applications take a look in the "C:\Documents and Settings\" folder. Here you will see all the users directories. The 2 main ones to focus on is your directory and the one that says All Users. Under these directories you will see "Start Menu" and then "Startup".

The next place to look is in the registry. Goto run in the start menu and type "regedit". Goto the directory \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Delete any applications that you do not want to startup.

The last place to look is the services. Goto run and type "services.msc". Here you can select the services that startup and how they startup, whether it be manual, or automatic or completely disabled. Be careful in this page. There are many services that you do actually need in order to run the machine. However there are application that install services in this area that are ok to stop.