Hi Peter
If you see programs running under the start tab that you do not use then disable them from within the relevant programs, or uninstall them. Do NOT disable them under the start tab, as this is purely for troubleshooting and setup problems, also some programs in this menu are linked together, even though they seem completely separate, so re-nable them all and follow the instructions above.
HESITATION PROBLEM
This is caused by lack of enough Ram memory, and is the way Windows works to solve the problem.
When you open a program it is loaded from the hard disk into Ram, (Not all the Ram may be needed for the program) if you now load another program then this is also loaded into Ram, however if there is not enough Ram available, then Windows copies part of the first program to a temporary file on the hard drive, (Called a paging file) before loading the new program, when you switch back to the first program, Windows first copies part of the second program to the paging file, to clear enough space in Ram memory, to reload the part of the first program that had previously been copied to the paging file, this swapping between the hard disk and Ram is why you get the hesitation, this is usually worse in laptops as to save power they normally use slower hard disks then desktop and tower computers.
The more Ram memory you have then the less windows will have to swap files between hard disk and Ram.
Hope this helps.

Bill