Hi Richy
The best way to change what programs run is to use msconfig. to use it go to
start menu - run and type msconfig. This will open a system config tool. Look
along the top till you find start up. Click the tab and you will be presented
with all th e programs that run at start up. Be careful waht you remove from
here as yopu can do some serious harm. Any entries you are not sure of post
them on here.

Best way initially is to stop it from within the program itself/settings/preferences (change it to no load at bootup or start) Failing that have a look at this site, it will take you through all the different places startup programs can hide themselves. Do so with caution in some of these areas because mistakes can cause catastrophes.
http://www.aumha.org/a/loads.php

There is a program I have being using for a while now called Startup Control Panel that runs as an applet within the control panel. It makes it easy to configure which programs run or not when your computer starts. It's simple to use.
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

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Touch Base
Post back here on the result- good or bad

D2A8FFA1-17E7-462B-AD88-BFDCD1D003AF@microsoft.com,

Go to Start -> Run and enter msconfig in the Open box.
Click on the BOOT.INI tab of the System Configuration Utility.
In the Boot Options box, put a check mark in the box next to
Safeboot.
Click OK and reboot.
Reverse the procedure to start in Normal mode.

Another option would be to download and run this program,

BootSafe - Makes rebooting in Safe Mode a Snap!
http://www.superadblocker.com/bootsafe.html

Good luck

Nepatsfan

You don't need Safe Mode to do this.

On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its Options to
see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you actually choose the
option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon" option). Many can easily
and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the
Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't
want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of running
the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell you, you
should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs you run, but
*which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but others have no
effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do is
determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what the cost
in performance is of its running all the time. You can get more information
about these at http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it
there, try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.