Since Windows Vista, startup programs run in low priority: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/03/28/startup-programs-on-windows-vista-inside-the-b

Since Windows Vista, startup programs run in low priority: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/03/28/startup-programs-on-windows-vista-inside-the-box.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/03/28/startu... I don't know how much this affects startup performance, but on my work Thinkpad Windows 7 boots up and is usable rather quickly.