Start up delay after Desktop appears

My computer's operating system is Windows 7 Professional which is up-to-date and all the drivers are the latest I can find.

The start up sequence is being slowed down by protracted activity on the hard disk, after the display of the Desktop, such that the only programme I have set to start at bootup is delayed by up to three minutes. This is the antivirus programme F-Prot Antivirus for Windows 6.

A log obtained from msinfo32 shows the following:

System Information report written at: 01/04/11 23:29:32
System Name: TESTNET

[Startup Programs]
Program Command User Name Location
Sidebar %programfiles%\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe /autorun NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE HKU\S-1-5-19\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Sidebar %programfiles%\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe /autorun NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE HKU\S-1-5-20\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
F-PROT Antivirus Tray application c:\program files\frisk software\f-prot antivirus for windows\fprottray.exe Public HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

As I do not use the Sidebar is it possible that Windows is trying to start it causing the delay? If so, how do I disable the autorun registry entries? I have no recall of how or even if I disabled the sidebar from loading.

whs said:

It looks like the sidebar.exe that starts the gadgets. Next time you logon, stop it immediately in task manager and see what happens. But if you have gadgets, you may want to stop those and see which one is the culprit.

Thank you for your response and input.

I didn't see sidebar.exe in Task Manager | Processes during startup. However since my first post I have looked at the registry keys in the PC Magazine's Registry Master utility and found in the History the entry for the keys:

Deleted value: BootExecute

From this information I assume the problem I am having is not related to sidebar.exe.

Joules said:

If the gadgets platform is causing that much of an issue then you can do this to it: Disable Sidebar / Desktop Gadgets on Windows 7 - How-To Geek

Thank you for your reply; much appreciated.

I have implemented your suggestion to find that the problem continues. Evidently I need to dig deeper!

If those keys have been modified by the deletion of BootExecute then I assume they do nothing

whs said:

Did you notice a difference?

No difference was apparent except that my router failed to connect as quickly as usual and therefore the delay was extended.

use MSCONFIG and see whats being loaded in the Startup tab.... uncheck non-essential items...save reboot....