You can get a "Startup Manager" program on download.com that will let you easily peek inside the registry and see what it wants to automatically run at startup (and make the things you aren't sure of over into dormant programs that don't autorun.) In the past I have removed programs, only to find that there is an automatic reinstall in the registry. I'll check for a link tonight, and also to one of those .pdf lists of valid and evil startup file names.
yeah, i had a bear of a time getting rid of 'ptsnoop' registry startup file. its for a pctel modem--which i don't use-- that took me an entire night to figure out. it kept reinstalling. i finally kicked its ass, though.