Delay Windows programs launching at boot?

On Windows XP I use 18 programs. In startup it makes 2-3 minutes to load all of them. Anti virus, translator, unlocker, file indexer, download manager, instant messenger etc..

I need all of them and they are on Windows system tray waiting for me to use. So I can't remove one of them, because I use them frequently. 5-6 times daily.

But I don't need them in the startup. So how can I delay the loading of these programs.

For example: - Anti virus, file indexer: in the startup - Translator, download manager, unlocker: 5 minutes after startup etc.

What solutions do you recommend?

Startup Delayer does the task: http://www.r2.com.au/page/products/show/startdelay

Instead of the ping command that Jeffy suggested before in Windows XP/Vista/2008 I use the timeout command in a batch file.

Syntax: timeout /t seconds

@echo off

rem for 5mins delay..

timeout /t 300

rem starting delayed start programs

start cmd /C "C:\Some\Path\To\A\Program.exe"

start cmd /C "C:\Some\Path\To\A\Shortcut.lnk"

start notepad

P.S. If you don't want to see the countdown you can discard the output like so: timeout /t 300 > nul

1. Create a batch file called "5minsdelayStart":

   @echo off
   rem sleeping for 300000 milliseconds (5 minutes)
   ping -n 1 -w 300000 -4 10.0.0.0 >NUL
   
   rem starting delayed start programs
   start cmd /C "C:\Some\Path\To\A\Program.exe"
   start cmd /C "C:\Some\Path\To\A\Shortcut.lnk"
   

2. Replace the commands at the bottom with the stuff you want to start up after 5 minutes delay.

3. Add this batch file to your startup folder.

Note: You might want to create a shortcut to the batch file instead, then set the launch options to start the batch file minimised. You'll have a command prompt in the background either way, but at least if it's minimised it won't be too much intrusion!

Also, if for some reason on your network 10.0.0.0 actually routes to something valid then you should change that IP address to something else (that doesn't have a route).