Start up

If the item is in the Startup folder that we're talking about (Start-All Programs-Startup) you can just right-click on it and choose 'Delete'.

There are lots of other things that automatically start when Windows boots that don't show up in the Startup folder though. You can customize your Startup by doing this: Start-Run, then type in msconfig, this will bring up a screen with a bunch of tabs, click on the Startup tab and you'll see what Windows loads when you boot your computer. If you don't want a particular item to start automatically, just clear the check mark and click on Apply, or OK, then restart your computer. Be careful though, make sure you know what it is that you're disabling. Generally, I only use this as a troubleshooting tool, if I think something running in the background is giving me a problem, I'll try to find it by creating a 'Selective Startup Sequence'. If you mess something up, just run "msconfig" again and put back the check mark.

Caution: the Startup tab in this splash screen is the only one I would mess with, changing stuff in the other tabs might cause you grief.

Hope this helps! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------