me again...
I'm following Owen's tips on speeding up - I've run the Hijack log and been to the castle cops website as suggested and put in all the O4 entries - on all it comes up with the message:
Currently 6933 startuplist entries and growing...
Last updated on 2005-01-26 11:22:40 Eastern.
!! THESE ARE STARTUP PROGRAMS AND NOT TASK MANAGER PROCESS ITEMS !!
so i presume I cannpt remove any of these and they are all needed?
Below are the 04 entries from my Hijack this log in case you need them:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINNT\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nwiz] nwiz.exe /install
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Synchronization Manager] mobsync.exe /logon
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [KeyMaestro] c:\program files\KMaestro\KMaestro.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroCheck] C:\WINNT\system32\NeroCheck.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BTopenworld] "c:\program files\bt yahoo! internet\DialBTYahoo.exe" /ReInstallAutoDial
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG7_CC] C:\PROGRA~1\Grisoft\AVGFRE~1\avgcc.exe /STARTUP
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [InCD] C:\Program Files\ahead\InCD\InCD.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINNT\system32\NVMCTRAY.DLL,NvTaskbarInit

to me i would have thought i wouldn't need all at start up but hey i'm not an expert! am i right?Are there any other things i can fix? do you need to see the whole log?

On the windows 2000 processes I've been onto the blackviper site but to be honest I'm not sure exactly what to do. I gather I can customise things I want to run at start up etc according to my preferences. Not all of the 'processes' listed on my task manager seem to be lsietd. Plus on the helpful list not sure what you mean by 'legit'?!
Even if I could identify them I'm not quite sure how I'd actually go about changing things - Owen can you provide a couple more pointers on actually doing it for the simple layman. cheers

I'm really trying hard to speed up my pc and it has already improved a lot using your tips e.g getting adaware, AVG, clearing the crap with crap cleaner etc and i really appreciate all your help guys. One thing do you think I should upgrade my pc a bit though: current spec is:
windows 2k professional, 127MB RAM; AMD Athlon XP 1700+; NVIDIA Geforce2 MX 200. if you need any more info let me know.

thanks again

On the hardware side, getting another stick of 128MB of memory, therefore upgrading to 256MB would do a world of good on the application handling side of thing, but this isn't my department and I'd consult one of the hardware forums about this.

Ensure you are entering just the ".exe" but or the ".dll" bit into Computer Cops and that should tell you about it:

So for all of these you'd enter:
NvCpl.dll
nwiz.exe
mobsync.exe
KMaestro.exe
NeroCheck.exe
DialBTYahoo.exe
avgcc.exe- Don't fix this, its for AVG.
InCD.exe
qttask.exe
iTunesHelper.exe
NVMCTRAY.DLL

One at a time of course. DialBTYahoo.exe probably won't be listed, but this is just the connection program which come with your ISP, BT Yahoo.

As for the Windows 2000 Services, leave them if you are not sure. They won't affect you drastically, your more concentrating on the "Apps I've installed" side. It is very advanced if your not quite sure what you are doing and you don't want to go wrong.

Plus on the helpful list not sure what you mean by 'legit'?!

Legit= legitimate. Which means a trusted program, e.g. not spyware or nasties.

Hope this clears things up for you

cheers for help owen!
all sorted