Enabling/disabling auto start up services in Ubuntu

Services which are automatically started on boot-up can be enabled or disabled using the BootUp Manager (BuM) application in Ubuntu. BuM can also be installed via apt-get -

sudo apt-get install bum

Instructions for other ways to install BuM are provided on the project's homepage linked above.

Also check this great answer on askubuntu for other ways to accomplish this. The upstart method of creating override files described in that answer also works great.

Some typical services which don't necessarily need to be started on boot are -

• mysql
• apache(2)
• postgresql/postgres-xc (if installed)
• vsftpd - a FTP daemon
• zramswap -  might not be required on systems with sufficient RAM (~ 4GB or higher)
• bluetooth 

All services that are disabled from auto-start can be manually started when required using this command -

sudo service <service-name> start