When Windows first loads you may have many unnecessary items running. This will slow your system down considerably and you should check the following sites to see what should actually be running and eliminate the others.

http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.htm

http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/startlist.htm

http://ww2.whidbey.net/djdenham/Uncheck.htm

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

http://aumha.org/win4/a/loads.htm

To see what is running in Windows, go to Start>Run>msconfig and look on the "Startup" tab.  You may uncheck items as a temporary troubleshooting measure but please see the details on the pages above to find out how to properly disable them.

  Please NotC:  Some items (notably LoadPowerProfile) will be listed twice and should be left that way.