slow boot up

lately my computer has taken forever to boot up when i turn it on. I also get a bunch of things coming up in my bottom toolbar. any relation? so basically, does anyone know why this is happening or maybe a suggestion on how to change this.

-thanks everyone

click "run" in the start menu, type "msconfig", go to the startup tab and deselect the programs you dont want to load at startup

And if you haven't already, check for spyware. Get either Spybot-S&D or Ad-aware.

Do what they said... you must have a lot of little thingies by your clock on your desktop.

Also - when you boot up, hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and (in WinXP) look at the bottom left corner. It will say "Processes: ##" When you just boot up that number shouldn't be higher then 35 or so. If it is too many programs are set to start with your computer.

Doing what loopyprawn said above will reduce the number, but make sure you know what you're turning off.

Good Luck.

Another thing that can be done, (BUT DO IT WITH CAUTION) is to turn off certain windows services that are running when you don't need them. In WinXP go to the run box and type services.msc

this will show all running or set to run services. Go to a website such as:

http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

THis will show you what services are needed and what are not.

Hopefully this helps.