slow pc at start up

There's a number of factors why your pc is slowing down. It could be a virus, a spyware, or a trojan (if this is the case , then you should disinfect your pc by doing a scan.) Like what the others said, try to check for startup items that may have been loading when you boot your windows. Here's a nice little tool to monitor your startup items and see what programs are causing it - http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml Next, is your hardware. You should at least have a 256mb run and a 1Ghz processor to perform a normal PC operation with less slow downs.

Well there's a definitely hidden programs (virus, spyware,etc.) running on the background. You might need to try to check your system tray (the icons located on the lower right beside the date and the time) and check if those programs are necessary to for the computer to run smoothly. If you have an antivirus or anti-spyware installed, you may need to update them regularly and run a full system scan immediately. Try to quarantine or eradicate malware that will be detected during the scan. You might also need to uninstall some unwanted programs that might be causing the program to run slow. If all else fails, back-up the most important files on your PC and try to reinstall Windows XP. This will definitely be the last resort but will definitely free your computer from malware that were installed on your computer without you being aware off. I hope this helps. :)

you can try to stop some start up services, which are really not required. change these services from automatic startup to manual startup. Then also get your pc scanned for viruses. There are some viruses which eat up your free memory thus making the pc slow.