Have a look at these sites for help with  programs running at start up.
Joan

A good process viewer will tell you everything that is running, to include
background processes.   Try Process Explorer, free from
www.sysinternals.com
.
CTRL-ALT-DEL  will bring up the End Task window, however, it will not show
every running process.   Most apps can be disabled from within the app
itself by using Properties or Settings or Options......the best way to
disable an app.
Here are some sites that will help you trim your startup axis......they
will
tell you what is needed and what is 'fluff.'
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php
http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/startup/list.html
http://ww2.whidbey.net/djdenham/Uncheck.htm
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.greatis.com/regrun3appdatabase.htm

Give a try at running Scandisk/Defrag in SafeMode, just to make sure
your disk is OK (it should be).

Then download and run...
http://home.earthlink.net/~bblanton2/scandefrag/main.htm
the next time you want to do some filesystem maintenance; it was
developed by a few gurus from 'round here.

Rick