Oh yea,
With MSCONFIG, you have to know what you are doing, as the tutorial points out very well. If you see something and you don't know what it is, LEAVE IT ON! I had some good training about MSCONFIG, so I know what's OK to turn off. That is exactly right, if you don't know what something does, leave it on.
It does help, but you absolutely only want to disable (uncheck) the stuff that you know you don't need at start up. Like Adobe Reader, or Real Player. There is no reason why the "Disable All" should be in there. Follow Patrick's instructions exactly, and if you are not sure about a start up item, leave it alone.
I have not used the other utilities mentioned above, so I cannot comment on those.
If you do make changes, don't panic on reboot if you get the message, "You have made changes to the way Windows Starts using the MSC Utility." Just check the box that says, "Don't Show This Message When Windows Starts."
Jack