Welcome Screen hangs for 25 secs in Win 7 ultimate x64

are you happy? That's the main thing.. no offense but you've been given all the advice on the matter that you need.. do you want a faster boot? yes? then head over to the windows optimisation section, that may save you 1 or 2 second.

do you want it to boot in 8-10 seconds, get some dual channel ram and a solid state hard drive.

if you dont want to spend money, sit and scratch your bum/make a cuppa for that 32-40 seconds.. its not exactly a long time.

lol who cares!?Does your pc work? does it do what you want it to do? then be happy with it!

if turning on is such an issue maybe you should set it to hibernate instead.
theres no set time for windows to load.. they dont advertise a time, because all systems vary, youve found this out by comparing to your friend.

you can only go so far before you spend money.

think of it like a car.. you wouldnt take it to a garage and ask why it doesnt do 265mph like a veyron just because it has 4 wheels and an engine like one.. but does it still get you from A to B? yes it does, just a little slower :)

I always wonder about the importance about a few seconds on boot.
If it takes 3 or 4 longer does somebody die in the neighborhood.
Maybe a tree will fall on your first born. Why care.
Boot time and shut down time is a very small part of judging how well a system works.
I actually have my system do a few extra things while booting and yes it does add 3 or 4 seconds. Big deal. It take that long to take a sip on my coffee. Some how I will live through it.

that and youve spent the best part of a day trying to solve the "issue" theres an awful lpt of 70 seconds in today that youve wasted that youll never get back..
time is infinite, your time isnt

Hi avistein
Just one more test if I may jump in here;
Press the Start button, then right click on Computer then click Properties then scroll down to show "Windows Activation" and post a screenshot here!

Thanks for that, all looks good. As others have said in a slightly different way "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!