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 PSOFT maintains hundreds of useful files for download visit our download web page at: http://freepctech.com/index.php/downloads