Many programs have an option whether to run at start up in
Preferences/Settings/Tools etc.

As a first step, I would suggest you start there.

After checking in the programs preferences you can alter your startup
folder. Start---run--type in msconfig---click startup and edit what you
want.

First, the Quick launch toolbar is usually parked on the Task bar and
can contain many icons. This has no system effect other than making life
easier for a user. IF you are talking about the Notification area (the
time is usually seen here) ,often incorrectly called the System tray,
the Icons there actually represent programs running in the back ground.
First clarify the location, then determine the course of action.

First, clarify what you mean by "in the task bar."

The are three potential places on the task bar that can contain icons:

1. The Quick Launch Bar (usually on the left side)

2. The Task Bar itself.

3. The System Notification Are (often informally called the System
Tray), usually on the right, near the clock.

Note that icons on the Quick Launch bar do *not* represent running
programs, and are only shortcuts, there to let you easily start the
programs they represent. There is *no* performance penalty to having
icons there.

The task bar itself, and the System Tray do represent running
programs, and these will a least slow down booting, and depending on
what programs they represent, can also cause an overall performance
penalty.

Here's my standard advice on slow startup and autostarting programs:

My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it
takes to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is
otherwise satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most
people start their computers once a day or even less frequently. In
the overall scheme of things, even a few minutes to start up isn't
very important. Personally I power on my computer when I get up in the
morning, then go get my coffee. When I come back, it's done booting. I
don't know how long it took to boot and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what
programs start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them
from starting that way. 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.