Preventing Programs From Auto-starting

Here is another way to skin this cat.  This method is described in a newsletter that I subscribe to, so I can't link to it, but I'll quote the relevant parts.

A better way — from Microsoft, no less

Microsoft distributes a free program that runs rings around Msconfig. Autoruns started as a freebie from a small company called Sysinternals and owes its existence to Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell, two of the most knowledgeable Windows folks on the planet. In July 2006, Microsoft bought Sysinternals. Mark became a Microsoft Demigod, er, Fellow.

Microsoft promised that all of the free Sysinternals products would remain free, and — wonder of wonders — that's exactly what happened. The latest version of Autoruns was released last week, freshly updated to handle the very latest programs, and it's still absolutely free.

To get Autoruns working, download it from Microsoft's TechNet site as a zip file. Extract the Autoruns.zip file and double-click Autoruns.exe to run it, no installation required. (The other program in the zip file, Autorunsc.exe, is the command-line version of Autoruns.)