My XP startup has recently slowed down. After the progress bar screen there's a black screen which shows for about thirty seconds before the next screen. Everything else appears to work as usual.
Anyone have any ideas?

have you done any major updates since this started?

Up dates will cause this to happen as the needed files are installed and started before windows starts itself. It may be caused by a failed update trying to reinstall itself over and over.

To correct this download Ccleaner (free) and run both the file cleaner and the registry cleaner to clear out any remnants of the updates and old registry pathes.

CCleaner - Home

I agree with lurkswithin, clean the junk files and the registry with CCleaner.
Also you can run your antivirus and your antispyware program to see if your computer is 'clean'.

Go here and download AutoRuns, use this little app by running it and going to the Logon section to disable programmes from running.

Now you will have to do a bit of trial and error here to find out which startup app is causing the problem.

So do it one at a time till you find the culprit, if the one you stop from is not the one that causes the problem re-enable it, then try another and so on.

Using AutoRuns is prefered to using MSConfig...

AutoRuns for Windows

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Wombat's: Bulldozers of the bush...

I ran crap cleaner which identified and removed a lot of, well, crap. But that hasn't helped. I'll try Wombat's method when I get home from work. Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated. I'll post the results later.