What are they?

After the booting process of computer is done, few programs also start after the operating system(Windows)is loaded. Thus ensuring the speedy opening of that application each time the application is accesses

So What is the Problem for a system

Virtually all applications you install using the default installation these days decide that they should start-up when Windows starts. If you allow these to take control, you can end up with a situation where (unless you have sufficient memory installed) every other program slows down to be unusable.

The reason for this is that all of these programs use a portion of the system memory and resources which leaves a smaller percentage for other programs once they're opened. On an older system, for example, prior to tweaking I had 33 programs running at start-up with the system resources at 59% and Windows took an age before it was ready for use. Post tweaking I had a mere 10, with system resources back to 92% and Windows was up and running within a minute.

For example, if you regularly take part in online gaming or do a lot of graphics or video editing then resources and memory are normally at a premium. Examples of programs that use up part of system memory and aren't really required (for most users) are:

• Updaters for products such as Sun's Java package (SunJavaUpdateSched) and Adobe software (AdobeUpdater or AdobeUpdateManager) which aren't changed that often and can be run manually.
• Mobile phone management/synchronization utilities - only required if you plug in your phone most days but they're normally available via the Start menu. And it is not must to have start up for these mobile management/ synchronization applications.
• Photo management "media watchers" - these wait in the background for you to insert a memory stick (or camera) with images on and then offer to add them to your album software (such as Adobe Photo Downloader)
• Ink level (or similar) monitors for printers - you can normally tell if the ink level is low and it doesn't run out often.

How to Identify these programs

MSConfig - Windows 9x/Me/2K/XP/Vista

You can also use the "System Configuration Utility" (referred to as MSConfig from now on) to identify startup programs. MSConfig is available for all Win9x/Me/2K/XP/Vista users (Win95/2K user can use the respective versions from here).

To use it to identify start-up programs do the following:

1. Click Start → Run
2. In the Open box type msconfig and then click on OK or press Enter
3. Select the Startup tab and a window will be shown similar to one of those below (click on the thumbnail and it will open full-size in another window)

Few columns are available. Note that with all of these you can expand the width of each column by holding down the left mouse button with the cursor on the vertical line between the column headings (where applicable) and then dragging the mouse either left or right before releasing. With the XP & Vista versions (for which the window cannot be re-sized) you can also double-click on the vertical line between two column headings to maximize the column width.

Windows Defender - Windows XP/Vista

Microsoft currently recommend using Windows Defender (or the registry) on systems running XP or Vista for controlling which programs run when your computer starts - see here. This utility can be downloaded for XP from here and is included by default with Vista.

To use it to identify start-up programs do the following:

1. Click Start → All Programs → Windows Defender
2. Click Tools → Software Explorer
3. Select Startup Programs under Category and a window will be shown similar to one of those below (click on the thumbnail and it will open full-size in another window)
4. Click on each entry under the Name column to reveal the details for that entry

Several columns are available, according to interest, one can change the view.

Other tools

Several 3rd party tools are available and few Free wares are also available

Generally I trust free software downloads from cnet. From past 3 years I’ve been downloading and not even once my system is troubled. I found these useful utilities

Remove Startup Programs Buddy 2.2

Remove Startup Programs Buddy is a utility to remove malicious programs from Windows start-up. Remove Startup Programs Buddy inspects Windows start-up places and lists start-up programs so you could delete abusive items. Remove Startup Programs Buddy backs up configuration data so you can roll back all changes at any time. Version 2.2 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
Company: Scorpio Software
Size: 920.75K

Startup Optimizer 1.6

Although this start-up monitor effectively replaces MSCONFIG for day-to-day use, it occassionally incorrectly judges the harm factor of start-up items.
Startup optimizer’s free and checkbox interface is clean and well designed. The program loads all startup items and color codes them by harm factor: Required, Not Required, User’s Choice, Unknown and harmful. Each of these items include info needed to judged its worth. Program name, location, command path, rating, size columns can be quickly sorted and sized for readability. Single click on an item displays info in a larger box and adds a comment concerning the item. Most Comments include a link for more info about item.
We found the harm factor ratings tended to produce error on the side of cautiousness, with a safe product labelled as harmful on some of our test machines.Users can easily backup start-up list prior to making changes. However, while any level of level user would find Startup Optimizer easy to use, care must be taken before disabling or deleting any start-up items.
Company: Cyberlion Solutions
Size: 1.09MB
CNET Download

Note: Its sure that removing start-up programs will help to gain performance. But at the same, If any important start-up items are disabled, it may cause the system unable to boot normally.