Serenity, the best way is to start over, and install the OS from the ground up. However, with laptops, that's sometimes problematic as some of that junk can be necessary to properly operate some of the laptop specific hardware components. Even if you download tools from the manufacturer to control for just what you need, sometimes the utilities won't install or operate properly on a clean install. I swear sometimes it seems as though they start with "those 90 pieces of crudware" and install the OS in bits and pieces around them as a framework rather than the other way around at times.
If you want to just shut off some of the unnecessary junk which is your next best option, download "autoruns" from Microsoft (it's part of "Systernals") rather than using msconfig, by the way. msconfig is meant as a temporary troubleshooting tool and can cause grief later if you use it as a permanent controller of what starts. You'll need to determine what each thing running actually is, and then decide if you can turn it off.
Lastly, I've only seen this twice, but before you even start, check to make sure that the laptop will actually start properly in safe mode before doing anything to it!
(And if it won't, take it back to the store and make them fix it so it will before you need it to - they should know what is causing it not to...)
<S>
