It is more the services you need to control.
Programs will depend on what you want your computer to do when your computer first starts.
EDIT:For myself I use Black Viper start up service settings. He has default,safe,and tweaked. I use his safe and as I never use a printer I disable print spooler,also all the media access to the internet is disabled.
This is done in start,services.msc,properties start up.
I go to windows key and R and type msconfig then services,hide all Microsoft services, and try to disable as many as I can of what is left.