Here's the text of my email to AShampoo support:
Jens,
I've tried the AShampoo Firewall on 1 single-account computer and 2
multiple-account computers. Although it works quite well on the single
account machine the slow boot problem exists on both multi-account boxes.
Specifically, the time between the first appearance of the desktop
background and the first appearance of any icons is greater than 5
minutes.
I've noticed the following about this:
During installation on both of the problem computers it appeared that 2
instances of the set up program ran even though I only executed it once.
That is, the configuration windows appeared twice and there were two
icons in the system tray.
Sometimes logging into a non-administrator account first avoids this
delay, but not always.
Removing the firewall from the start ups followed by a reboot does not
alleviate the problem - it must be uninstalled to avoid the delay.
On the second of the problem computers some programs (Bazooka
AntiSpyware, an HP Program Update utility, and Spybot S&D) were able to
obtain internet connections without the firewall intervening. There were
no rules established for these programs - they simply connected to their
update servers. I did not test this on the first of the problem
computers.
I recommended AShampoo to another user who experienced a similar boot
problem but I have no specific details on that.
At this point I've gone back to Zone Alarm on the 2 multi-account
computers and there are no longer any delays. I hope this helps track
down the problem.