How to speedup Windows start by disabling services?

Many software vendors include processes that start with Windows, taking up resources and slowing down the Windows startup time and your system in general.

Before we get into disabling unnecessary services, note that you should also uninstall software you don't need ("Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program"), and check your software settings to prevent them from starting components/services with Windows.

To prevent unnecessary services from starting with Windows, follow the simple steps outlined below:


Disable Startup services
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and choose "Task Manager". (alternatively in Windows 8/10, right click on "Task View" by the Cortana search icon > choose "Task Manager")
Navigate to the "Startup" tab > right-click on processes you don't want starting with Windows and choose "disable".

Windows Registry
You can remove offending startup services by editing the Windows Registry > Windows key+R (or search) > type: regedit > navigate to one of the following keys, and remove unnecessary services:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services

Here is a list of services started by Adobe Photoshop/Acrobat at Windows start, for example (most of them can be safely disabled without functionality loss):
AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0 (Adobe Updater Startup Utility)
AdobeCS6ServiceManager (Adobe CS6 Service Manager)
AdobeCS5ServiceManager (Adobe CS5 Service Manager)
AdobeFlashPlayerUpdateSvc (Adobe Flash Player updates)
SwitchBoard (Adobe Switchboard)
adfs (Adobe Drive File System Driver)
Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher
AdobeARMservice (Adobe Acrobat Updater keeps your Adobe software up to date)


Disable unnecessary Windows services
In addition to services started by software vendors, there are also some native Windows services that can be disabled to further reduce overall system load. From the Start/Search dialog, run "services.msc" (or navigate to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Services). Please make sure to read the native services' descriptions before disabling them, as many may be necessary for the proper operation of Windows.

For each running service that you want to disable, you will have to: right-click on the service > choose Properties > stope the service, and change its' "Startup type" to either "Manual", or "Disabled."

Some example services that can be disabled to reduce periodic disk writes, for example are:
Diagnostic Policy Service
SuperFetch
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Windows Search