Every time you start the Zune software on your computer it waits while it downloads updates to the catalog from the Zune marketplace. If you want to speed up the starting of the Zune software, there's a quick hack that allows you to skip the updates to the catalog in the Zune marketplace.

Make sure that the Zune software is closed. Then open Windows Explorer and go to the directory where the Zune software is installed (the default directory is C:\Program Files\Zune). You'll then want rename the file called ZuneMarketplace.dll, just give it a name that you can find later so that you can change it back if you want to reenable this functionality later. Depending on your version of Windows, you may need to enter an admin password to rename this file.

Once you change this file name, you can restart the Zune software and be amazed at how much faster it starts. If you ever want to undo this change, just go back and rename the file back to its original name.