Which XP version should i buy?

you should be begin by looking at startups.. Use pacman's startup portal as it provides a good tutorial as well as a database about many startup programs that have been reported. It will also give you an inidcation if it is really needed at startup or not.

Also, rather then using msconfig, you'll find it much easier managing your startup's with Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel

Hey thanks for the tutorial, and the link. I will download soon

The ONLY processes you need on Startup are for the anti-virus program, firewall if using one, touchpad if on laptop and network process if on network. ALL other can be called up as needed. Processes can be identified using tasks list databases such as:
STARTUP APPLICATION DATABASE LIST
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

IF a necessary process is unchecked and found to be needed, it's only a matter of going back and rechecking it. Unchecking a process in msconfig does not remove the process, just prevents it from starting at boot.

As for the Services, most all are put on Automatic- some can be moved down to Manual to start when needed or Disabled if not needed. Running Services unnecessarily, such as some of the Remote Services, can be a security risk. An excellent reference for help with Services is the Black Viper site:http://www.blackviper.com/

Customizing Services takes some time and patience, being sure to check the Dependency tab of any Service you want to change.

Bobbye is definitely taking you down the right path but i wouldn't start you with too restrictive a view on which startups are really needed. (e.g. some Logitech wireless devices also require startups or you're dead in the water with no mouse/keyboard on bootup!)

Suggest you start with installing Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel (link provided in prior post) to see your current startups. Then walk through each, one-by-one looking them up in the startup databases to see if it;s required at startup or not (not could be: "not needed at all" or "up to the user as to whether you care about whatever functionality the startup will provide you"). Once you've gotten pretty comfortable at what you're doing and learned how to tune the application startups on your machine....you can graduate to the next level: Download Autoruns to really see all possible startups on your system (it goes beyond the application startups and as such requires a somewhat higher level of caution as you tweak things.)

For services, would also strongly recommend:

• Download and use Serviwin to manage your Services
• Before you tweak anything, save a snap shot of your current Services and their startup settings using Serviwin. Sometime in the future when you're scratching your head about something not working you're gonna want this baseline snapshot. Take periodic other snapshots along the way.
• If i recall, somewhere on BlackViper are directions to setup mulitple hardware profiles. Can be helpful to have one profile where you know all the setttings work. Create a different profile for your tweaking (then easy to restart to the good, known profile if any problem)

About a wireless mouse and keyboard needing to be on Startup- don't know if the brand makes any difference, but I have Microsoft wireless mouse and keyboard and there is no process needed on Startup.

Logitech. but even in that case one needs look at each startup one-at-a-time as one of their startups is just their hook into getting info about new products on your desktop. Other is required.