Check under System Preferences Account and Login Items and uncheck the Apps you don't want to open on restart.
As to hanging Safari, how much Disk Space have you left on your HD. If you have fallen under 15% then you will start to see the SBOD (spinning ball of death) a lot more often as the OS needs disk space for its swap files and to run at its optimum. So if you are running low, BACKUP asap, then get rid of somethings to clean it up.
Other than that, download
Oynx for your Version of OS (its important you get the one for your OS or it could do more damage than good) and then run all the scripts under Maintenance and then restart your Mac and se if that makes a difference. . . IF not, pop back in and we will go from there.
Next time in, list your Mac and what version OS you are running too. The more info the better chance we have of helping.