@DavidR,
v6,7,8 of avast - ready to work in 1min45sec, v9-4minutes.
I tried the I'm on DSL trick and load avast after all services trick - minor advantage, perhaps a minute.
Yes, avast loading up front is in the way.
Mind you, I have really few processes running at startup and nothing other than avast needs internet. So my theory still is that it's something in v9 that's so different and annoying.
@thekochs,
I defrag and do chkdsk day after M$ patches because I know they make a mess. Just did it last week, and it's 4% fragmented and 1/3rd of the system partition is free (11/30)
@Cluster-Lizard,
- Firebreathing-hyperthreading 3.06 Mhz to be exact - A75-S226 Satelite. Had 512meg, updated to 1g in 2007 (Crucial says max allowed is 1.5g). Only one slot, so I'd have to ditch 512 and buy 1g, and the little thingie which holds that extra memory is, for me, very difficult to get at (unlike in Compaq) - it's deep and I'm scared.
- Don't worry about the stability of v9 - it's rock stable, just a tad slower on opening apps, and huge-slower on booting for me.
- 4 min booting in your situation is too long, IMO, in v8. But I don't know what services you allow and what processes you run at start.
Guys, you're all fantastic, thank you!