Locating the services that will start when Windows boots
My Dell C400 runs Windows XP, and it was taking 5 – 10 minutes to boot. This wasn’t always the case, so I started poking around to see which services where being enabled during startup. Windows maintains two registry keys for startup items, as well as the old trusty “Startup” folder in the start menu. Here are the keys you can check to see which services will start when Windows XP initializes:
Registry key #1
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Registry key #2
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
My problem turned out to be with VMWare server, and removing it made my machine boot quickly again. Nice!
dwilson on December 23rd, 2006
Next time you have a similar problem have a look at Autoruns: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/Autoruns.mspx