Running Programs Question

Hello,

I'm running XP, and was wondering how can I stop certain programs from running in the background if they have no option in their menu? When I start up my computer, there are a few programs that automatically run, and it's slowing things down drastically.
Is there a way to pick which programs I want to run, or a program I can use to pick and choose which run?

Thanks so much in advance

Susan

 

Thanks robo!! Done, and we'll see after my next restart how much quicker things are!

Thanks again.

Susan