Ghacks posted a tip about speeding up loading of Windows 8 start up programs

While Microsoft changed the way users boot into the company’s Windows 8 operating system which is a couple of seconds faster on average than in previous systems, it did sacrifice a couple of things along the way. I have already talked about the new boot process and how it saves some information on the hard drive so that the system can boot up faster. While that is great most of the time, it means that some changes that are made to the hardware or software won’t be accessible until you perform a regular reboot of the system.

Another issue was just discussed on the WinAero website. Windows 8 apparently delays the start of desktop programs that have been added to the start up folder of the system or to one of the auto start Registry locations. These programs are started delayed, usually a couple of seconds after the operating system has been loaded. You may have noticed the behavior on your PC running Windows 8 if you have added programs to the auto start.

  Speed up the loading of Windows 8 start up programs