drucipher1, To find some excellent information about what can be eliminated at startup go to Denny Denhams site. You can find a post by Denny in the thread labled "STANDBY OPTION" a few posts below this. Click on the second link under his name.
As far as the MSN login goes, I believe there is an option to uncheck in Tools/Options/Preferences once MSN is running. If you use Outlook Express there is an option there also. Go to Tools/Options on the General tab.
Hope this helps.
Barbara