Go into Regedit and then find the Run section and get rid of a number of TSRs like the ones from Creative and other programs which check to update their programs.

 

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That won't speed up your internet. How much bandwidth do you think it takes to query a server and determine if there's a new update available?

If you want to disable them, it's easier to go into msconfig's startup tab and uncheck every third party app you have in there, then reboot. It might increase boot times on older systems and it will return a small amount of memory for each app that you have with an auto-update feature.

 

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