It seems that 80% of the programmers in the world think that
their program has to have an icon in the taskbar. After all. This program is the most important program in the world! (right?) Unfortunately, these programs are running all of the time and consuming computer resources and a lot of the icons are never used! This slows down the machine. However, we do want a few of the icons running and we don't necessarily want to uninstall the programs (though that can also be a good idea).
Download a copy of
AutoRuns from
Autoruns for Windows
Run the program and click the
Logon tab. Many items under these keys are not required:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Autoruns lets you uncheck the boxes. After rebooting, the unchecked items won't run. You have to be smart about what you uncheck. For example, you want your antivirus to run and possibly a firewall. But, you don't need "Adobe Reader Speed Launch" or "QuickTime Task". If you're not sure, right-click on the item and select "Search Online". This will launch your Internet browser and you can google the items to see what they are. If you decide, later, that you need the item, simply re-run Autoruns, recheck the box, and reboot.
You can also check the 'Internet Explorer" icon and temporarily disable some of the BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) that aren't needed.