slow start up imac 10.6.7

[mary86004]

My computer started up pretty fast when I first got it in 2007 - Tiger operating system. It got slower. When I upgraded to Snow leopard, I thought it would help. I think user data that was transferred makes it slow.

I start the computer and wait 45 seconds for the desktop to load, then I click mail, Safari and Firefox. Takes about a minute to open. It used to be faster.
Isn't there something I can clean out or do to speed this up.

Is there something I should be doing for maintenance with my Mac to keep it running fast in general?

Thanks for any tips.

 

[GGJstudios]

Check System Preferences > Accounts > youraccount > Login Items to see what's automatically launching on startup. You can also check the following locations for other items that launch with startup:

/System/Library/LaunchAgents/
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/
/Users/username/Library/LaunchAgents/​

Also, after you've started up, use Activity Monitor to see what apps/processes/widgets are running, before you launch any apps. Be sure to change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes".