Why does my pc take so much time to boot?

i hv windows xp, sp2. i am using avg free edition antivirus software. when i am booting my pc, the desktop appears quite fast but in the taskbar, i see a window named smart wizard and when i move my mouse over the taskbar the hourglass appears indicating some sort of work is going on. the smart wizard disappears after 3 to 4 minutes and only then my pc is ready for use. CAN ANYBODY HELP ME?

Why does my pc take so much time to boot?spyware removal

The most liekly culprit is spyware. Try LavaSoft's AdAware personal, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Microsoft's antispy beta. Also make sure that AOL is not installed on the computer as it extremely slows computers down. Spybots advanced tools allows you to manage startup items better than msconfig which can also be used.

Why does my pc take so much time to boot?virus protection software

You must have alot of applications to boot in startup. Get rid of some of them and your computer will boot faster.
For my pc, I have too many programs on the task bar, both right side and left. By removing some tasks, I sped it up. Then I added the Google side bar-- and slowed it down! That's pretty clear to me.

toodles
If you click ctr alt del you'll get the task manager up, have a look in the processes and see if there's sneaky programs running. you might find that there's a program eating your memory up.

Also I use multiple spyware scanners as sometimes one won't catch something that another does.