Startup Programs

Well, providing you checked the Startup folder for your profile, also look in the Documents & Settings\Default User\Start Menu\Programs\Starup folder.
Also, you will need to see what is set in the Registry to start up. The easiest way to check thaton Win2K/XP (in my opinion) is to get a copy of MSCONFIG.EXE, the Win9x tool.
This tool will work on Win2K/XP, to view the programs the Registry is set to start. If you have a Win9x machine, just copy the file to a floppy, paste it onto the XP machine, and run it. You will get 4 error boxes, saying that System.ini, Win.ini, Config.sys & Autoexec.bat can't be found. That is ok; these files aren't used in Win2K/XP. After that, you can get to the Startup tab. Click it and unselect anything you don't want to run on startup.

hope this helps

An XP version of msconfig is part of XP pro. Don't know about the home version.

Also, keep in mind that part of what is going on while the boot screen is up is the loading of device drivers, backups of the boot files, boot logs if enabled, I think the registry checker runs also.

Depending on your system speed, and available memory, it can take some time for the process to complete. My XP Pro system boots in about 1/2 the time of my similar W98 system.

There is a tool that you can download from Microsoft to track your boot time.