Bonus Tip: Perform a Boot Defragment

There's a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment,
which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files
are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.
On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be
on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot
defragment is enabled on your system, run the Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

Edit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. Exit the Registry and
reboot. The next time you reboot, you'll do a boot defragment.