It depends on what you want to work, Michelle. I tend to stop help apps loading at startup (they often just serve to load the main app faster), I then go to the services tab in MSConfig and hide all MS services. Then I scroll through killing off what I don't want or need, eg the ATI hot key poller, Bonjour service, Isposure agent and so on. If something stops working, it's a moment to just turn that service on again.