I've had this problem for as long as I can remember. It happens on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It's happened on different computer I own, not just my notebook.

The problem is Windows boots up fine to the login screen, I type in my password for my user account (only have one account on this machine running Vista) and it logs me in. Then everything loads like it normally does, I see the net connection icon by the system clock but there is a delay in connecting and I cannot do anything until I get past this delay. I can open Windows Live Messenger, that's about it. If I try to delete something, it will not delete, if i try to right click on any icon in the system tray, not menu pops up, etc. It's a period of say about 10-30 seconds in which everything is "stuck", then I'll get HDD activity and the net connects and everything works fine from there on in.

Anyone else have the same issue?

I have ruled a few things out:

1. HDD - Happens on multiple computers, not just my notebook.
2. Startup programs (unless I missed something), I disabled everything.
3. Windows Updates, I have tried without them, from a clean Windows install.

Thanks.


Found the answer after playing around a bit more. I disabled the "Workstation" service. Now there is no delay AT ALL. Although now I cannot share files across my network from this machine. I'd rather have no delay lol.

yeah, its part of Restore Network shares on login

I know this because i turned on verbose login messages (somewhere in the group policy editor) and it hangs at "Restoring Network Connections" or shares or something for 10-30sec as you describe every time i login.

solution? don't map network drives, instead place shortcuts to the network URIs on your desktop. you can access a network URI from any save/open dialog box just like a drive letter

for reference, the URI im referring to is something like \\desktopPC\SharedDocs

Yeah funny thing is i have no mapped network drives..

Hmmz, I have that issue every now and then. The reason for the delays, in my case, was that I disabled some network service. I don't remember exactly which one, but if you've disabled any services. double-check and try out different settings...

I didn't disable any services, it happens on fresh installs too.. Ah well. I'll just live with the Workstation service disabled. It does the trick. I rarely transfer files to the other computers anyways. Thanks for the suggestions though!