zpyder, use msconfig to dump everything but the bare essentials from startup (only thing i have running is ultramon for a taskbar on the 2nd screen)
if you haven;t used it before...
click start, type msconfig, hit return
in the services tab, click hide all Microsoft services, then unlick everything (unless you really really want it there)
same in the startup tab, just disable everything
if things start to get really slow... I tend to go in and disable everything... and then go back to look for whats really nescicery... (google the name if you;re not sure, things pretending to be important normally arnt)