As you view the items you can be a bit selective as to the order in which you allow.

I always end all these processes as I like a very fast and clean startup.

If you do not know what a particular process is then Google it.

Also what AV and firewall are you using?

These, although very necessary, can also cause issues.

I'm wondering what the specs are on your computer. Namely RAM, processor type/frequency, & graphics. Also what version of vista. You can get all of that [except graphics] by right clicking on computer and selecting properties. While you're at it what does it say for your "Windows Experience Index". Click on that link and you'll get a list of specific numbers.

On thing that you can do while you are in the "Performance Information and Tools" is to click on advanced tools and look for the listed performance issues. While you are on this page click on "Adjust the appearance and performance of windows". You'll get a box that says performance options and the visual effect tab should be selected. Click on "adjust for best performance" and all of the check mark boxes should be deselected. Click apply. All of the fancy graphics added to Vista will be gone and it'll look basically like windows 2000 and earlier but it isn't as demanding on your hardware so it should work better until you figure out what's going on.

Now click on the advanced tab and look for the "total paging file size for all drives" which is in MBs. Tell us what that says. On the same page make sure that "Adjust for best performance of:" has programs selected. If you have to change that you'll probably have to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.