Windows 7: 'Welcome' screen after entering password hangs for 15 seconds

I recently re-formatted my hard-drive and re-installed windows 7. There were some problems, so I did it again. Both times I've had this issue...

When I turn on my laptop and windows 7 boots up everything's fine up until I type in my password to log in. The 'welcome' screen stays there for nearly a good 15 seconds, when before it would only be there for about a second at most. If I log out and log back in again the welcome screen only stays there for about a second again, so this is a problem with only the first time logging in.

I've googled this a little bit and I don't have a solid colour background at all.

I'm going to try disabling all startup services and programs to see if one of those is the problem but while I do this I'd like to know if anyone would know how to solve this slightly annoying problem. ( EDIT: The problem still stands with all services and programs disabled)

Thanks to everybody in advance! All help is greatly appreciated!

Once the screen finally loads after the 15 sec delay, do you have Disk errors in the 'system' Event Logs?

No, I don't. :/

15 seconds is awfully close to a service network timeout. If you release your IP (if you are on dhcp), unplug the network cable, and then reboot - does it also wait 15 seconds?

I just tried it, it still waits for the 15 seconds

OK. Does it happen if you let the system wait for 60 seconds after displaying the logon screen before attempting to logon?

Hmm, I guy I found told me to try this
How to speed up boot process under Windows Vista or Windows 7 - MSFN

And initially I thought that too so I tested it, it still hung up on the welcome screen after leaving it for a few minutes.

Now it's much much faster, so I guess this topic can be closed
Thanks for the input, it was greatly appreciated nonetheless!