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\BootOptimizeFunctionEdit
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.