DISABLING STARTUP ITEMS

Your computer may have many programs configured to load on windows startup. These programs can make your PC startup very slow and you don't need all of them at startup anyway. As you install more software, more programs automatically add themselves to your startup list. The more there are, the more RAM gets taken up on Windows boot. That's how your computer becomes sluggish on startup. The solution is to go through your startup list and disabling all the unwanted programs.

When you start your computer, Windows has to load a whole bunch of system files without which it can't run. However, a lot of other programs also put themselves in the startup folder. These can be anything, from Google Update to Skype and Windows Live Messenger. Adobe programs are also notorious for launching on startup by default.

Unnecessary startup items are easy to manage with the help of the System Configuration Utility. Here's how:

1. Click on the Start button, then click Run (for Windows XP) or Search Programs and files (for Windows 7).
2. Type msconfig in the box and hit Enter. This will launch the System Configuration Utility.
3. Go to the Startup tab. You will see a list of all programs launching on Windows Startup.
4. Now go through the list and simply uncheck the programs you don't want to start automatically. Be careful and don't start disabling recklessly. If you don't know what something is, it's best to leave it alone or at least Google it before disabling.
5. Click Apply and then click OK.
6. Reboot Windows for the changes to take effect.

Alternate method using software:

 You can use the Startup Manager feature in Advanced System Care or use the native one in Wise cleaner.