Disable unnecessary programs

Installing many programs on you computer can often clutter your registry with unnecessary programs running when your computer starts up.  This will slow down your machine and take up memory.
Start Regedit.  If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Once there, locate any entry's on the right.  You can identify the program by the path to the executable.  Find programs that you can live without starting up from the list.
Right click on them and select Delete
You may also want to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Runonce and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
Delete unnecessary programs.
Reboot your computer.

Alternative method:

Click on the start button and select run.
In the text box type msconfig and click ok.
Once the window has loaded, click on the startup tab and uncheck programs you do not want to start up anymore.