What's in your msconfig?

My main computer has been running slow for a while now. So for xmas dh bought and installed some more memory for me. Which in one fell swoop I used up. I'm not quite sure exactly how I did that. Well let's see I did load some more pics to the computer. And then I decided to be crazy and install Picasa. I have it on my laptop, but not on my main computer. And in one fell swoop between opening Photoshop and installing Picasa and then adding a few pics my computer is acting like a dinosaur again. Not so good.

So for the last few days I've been tinkering with it. In little bits and pieces, mainly because sometimes you make too many changes at once and really mess it up. And then you are screwed and can't backtrack and undo the damage you have done. Not that I've ever done that....

So after uninstalling and removing stuff that the kids no longer play and that I no longer use, my computer still sounds like it is eating nails and churning away at glass as it chugs along trying to keep up with me. Not good. So I went looking for other stuff that I know is eating up valuable memory but that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the first time. Like all those silly programs that load every time I turn it on whether or not I want them too. And low and behold I figured it out.

If you type msconfig from your off of your start menu and then click on start up, you can see all the stuff your computer runs every time it starts - whether you need it or not. So I spent the afternoon cleaning stuff out of my start up menu. I unchecked things like itunes, qtask, yahoo pager, winzip, quicken, real scheduler etc. It turns out all these bad boys and others have quietly been eating away my my computer's memory whether I called on them to or not. So 2 hours later my computer isn't chewing glass anymore, downside if I want to run itunes or quicken or whatever it will take them a few extra seconds to start as they won't be sitting there waiting for me to call on them. You know what, I can live with that. So what programs do you have just sitting there eating up valuable memory every time you start your computer even if you aren't using them in that session?