I came across an ExtremeTech called Supercharge Windows Vista’s Startup Time and it talks about improving Vista boot up time.
It mentions checking the msconfig, which has been around since Windows 98 as far as I know and the services which was introduced in Windows NT and most modern operating system uses.
The new thing I learnt today was Windows Defender. Whilst primarily it is a adware/spyware scanner, if you go to:
Tools > Software Explorer
it will list all the programs that start up. It’s not as comprehensive as msconfig but it does show it in a nice interface.