Thinking of the recent thread that made mention of msconfig, it occurred to me to ask this. What common programs can be run in similar fashion to help set up your computer so that it works the way you want it? In other words, we’re talking tips of the trade here. Not software like Spybot; stuff you already have, could use if you wanted, but don’t feel like buying a $50 book to find out about. 
Before it retired recently, this webpage was very popular.
Word of warning: Although it may seem overkill, I really strongly recommend rebooting after every 1-2 tweaks you make, especially if they involve services and/or the registry. The del.icio.us windows tag will keep you busy as well.
There are many times when editing your Registry can be a lifesaver, but, WARNING, never, ever do this unless you know what you are doing, AND only if you back it up first!!!
You do this by Run and then 'regedit." You then go to File, and Export. Best to send it to your desktop, and then name it “backup,” or simply, “bu.” Then if anything goes wrong, you can click on the desktop icon and restore it.
The most common time to do this is after uninstalling software. Good software is supposed to remove all references in the Registry, but seldom does. After uninstalling, reboot, and first go to Explorer and make sure the Folder is gone. If not delete it,
Then in Regedit, use Find to look for the name of the program you just got rid of, delete each reference to it (and hit F3 to continue the search), then close and reboot again. You’d be surprised how much junk is there.
Again, don’t even think about doing this unless your are pretty experienced with computers.
There are some good Registry cleanup programs, such as Registry Healer that not only clean up the registry, but also compact it. They provide automatic backups so you can restore if something does not work afterward. MS has a free little program called Regclean that is pretty neat. You can run this frequently from a desktop icon.