my friends laptop takes 3 minutes to load up to get to your desktop.
how can i speed this up.

Go to start Run... msconfig > Startup

Everything you see here was added by third party software. Except for your anti virus and firewall you can stop everything from starting by unchecking the boxes.

You can always come back here and recheck programs if you decide you want them to start automatically.

When you reboot you will get a screen that tells you you are starting in diagnostic mode. Just click the box that basically says: I know. Don't show this again.

If it is still slow turn off everything including the anti virus and firewall just to test if these are the problem.