Hardware profiles, services, programs - not quite sure I'm doing thisright??

In a previous thread (http://tinyurl.com/2colgvz), John John - MVP
suggested I look into setting up separate hardware profiles and
referred me to http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/h..._profiles.html
.. My ultimate goal is:
(a) stop some of these stupid things from loading on boot-up at any
time and clogging up my system (liike the program that wants to
constantly check for updates for my printer!)
(b) create two separate boot modes for my laptop - one for "normal"
use including WiFi, and one for bare-bones non-network use, similar to
Safe mode but with greater functionality
(c) to be able to choose one mode or the other without having to
open msconfig and re-construct my bare-bones mode each time (or other
similar very involved process)

As I'm working through the list of services for the hardware profiles,
it suddenly dawns on me that I'm not seeing any of the _programs_ I
want stopped. Like the printer update checker that I don't want to
boot any time, or AVG and Spyware Terminator that I don't want in my
non-network mode.

I know I can turn off these programs in msconfig - but would affect
both profiles, yes? So perhaps the hardware profiles is not the total
solution? It's maybe a good place to start, but I will need something
else too?

A drop-kick to get me a bit further down this road would be greatly
appreciated!
Ed