Windows 7: "Preparing your desktop..." slow login

I have been searching the internet for days and cannot seem to find the solution to my problem but here we go.



It is the common issue of the welcome screen loading for about 20 seconds and everyone answer I have seen has been to set the desktop as a jpg file. I have done this and does not change a thing. In fact, it takes exactly the same time to login as having a solid colour. I know this is probably faster than a lot of computers but I don't like it!

I have done all the "tune up your pc" tips and once logged in, everything is fast but I cannot seem to get around this.

Any suggestions?

Does it say "preparing your desktop" every boot? that should only be displayed the first boot after install.

It does yes but only because I have the verbose status on. If I remove that, it just stays on "welcome" for the same time period.

Ok so you ask it to take its time and use verbose then are upset it is taking too long? Turn verbose off.

Like I said, when I have verbose off, it stays on the welcome screen with the word "welcome" for the same period of time. I have turned off verbose and still takes its time ... problem remains.

You can use Event Viewer to check your boot times and possible pointers as to why they are so long.

Boot Times - Monitor with Event Viewer

I have tried to search for the possible events that are a problem so here they are:

From Boot degredation view:

(Warning - Event 107) Application of machine policy caused a slow down in the system start up process:
Name : MachinePolicyApplication
Total Time : 346ms
Degradation Time : 286ms
Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2011‎-‎09‎-‎01T20:10:11.562400100Z

(Warning - Event 101) This application took longer than usual to start up, resulting in a performance degradation in the system startup process:
File Name : mmc.exe
Friendly Name : Microsoft Management Console
Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Total Time : 5191ms
Degradation Time : 191ms
Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2011‎-‎09‎-‎01T20:10:11.562400100Z

From Administrative events:

(Error - Event 10) Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

I don't know anything about these or how to fix them but guessing they are the issue.

Download Autoruns at Windows Sysinternals: Documentation, downloads and additional resources and examine what is loading at logon. Uncheck every thing you don't need to load at startup, and see if your logon isn't faster.

I have disabled everything but my keyboard/mouse, antivirus and wireless from startup but still slow The boot up time is fine but the login screen still takes a while. I have new events now:

(Warning - Event 101) This application took longer than usual to start up, resulting in a performance degradation in the system startup process:
File Name : MsMpEng.exe
Friendly Name : Antimalware Service Executable
Version : 3.0.8402.0
Total Time : 7350ms
Degradation Time : 2350ms
Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2011‎-‎09‎-‎01T21:39:20.562400100Z

(Warning - Event 103) This startup service took longer than expected to startup, resulting in a performance degradation in the system start up process:
File Name : audioendpointbuilder
Friendly Name : Windows Audio Service
Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Total Time : 869ms
Degradation Time : 517ms
Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2011‎-‎09‎-‎01T21:39:20.562400100Z


(Warning - Event 107) Application of machine policy caused a slow down in the system start up process:
Name : MachinePolicyApplication
Total Time : 320ms
Degradation Time : 124ms
Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2011‎-‎09‎-‎01T21:39:20.562400100Z

I am also getting the following in administrative events:

Failed extract of third-party root list from auto update cab at: <http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootstl.cab> with error: A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file.
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