By far the commonest causes of slow startup and performance (the two often 
go hand-in-hand) is having too much running at startup.

These generally fall into 3 broad categories:
1. Software
2. Devices
3. Services.

Each separate program may be perfectly alright when running alone, but in 
combination with certain other programs may give trouble. So it is 
sometimes difficult to isolate exactly which is/are the culprits.

1. Software:
As previous writers have mentioned, start by disabling ALL software from 
startup. You can either use Msconfig, which is very basic, and won't 
show  everything, or, preferably, download the freestanding Startup Control 
Panel by Mike Lin.

Reboot and see if this makes a difference. If so, then re-enable each one 
in turn (or make a few educated guesses), until you isolate the cause of 
the problem.

2. Devices:
Run Device Manager and see if there are any obsolete printers, scanners, 
etc, still showing. If so, remove their drivers. Windows trying to load 
missing hardware drivers (or loading drivers for devices previously 
removed) is also a common cause of slowdowns---some older printer drivers 
can be particularly troublesome when their parent hardware is no longer 
there.  Check also in Control Panel/Devices & Printers  and  Add/Remove 
programs.

3. Services:
Known troublemakers are Indexing Service and Fast User Switching. Follow 
the advice previously given.

Reboot each time you make any changes to see what the effect is, and write 
down each change as you go. Tedious to be sure, but it's essential to 
follow a logical procedure, otherwise the task can be never-ending.

There are other less likely possibilities, like a hard drive or memory 
stick on the way out, but the above covers the vast majority of causes.

If all else fails, you could download the free Autoruns from Microsoft. 
This will show everything that loads at startup, including all normally 
hidden system files and drivers. It's a frightening list! You might be able 
to identify any culprits. Be aware that disabling many of these listings 
will result in complete failure of Windows to boot. There's no built-in 
failsafe.

You could also download the free Bootvis from Microsoft ("Boot 
Visualizer"). Follow the instructions, don't forget to turn the Task 
Manager  Service on, and it will  analyse the boot times for each step of 
the boot process.This can be a very useful tool for visualizing the entire 
boot process, although it's not very well-known. It's quite safe to use and 
has been around for years. A more glitzy commercial version from Italy is 
Soluto---it's very impressive for analyzing and correcting boot problems in 
a highly graphic manner. I'm most impressed by it--it tells you what you 
can and can't safely tamper with.

Don Penlington

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