Robert in CA wrote:
I know, I noticed that too. I wish there was
a way of taking a screenshot when it's doing
things and says do not turn the computer off.

I forgot to tell you that when booting up
it had stopped at the Windows Boot Manager
and required me to hit enter.

Then just now the desktop came up OK but the
icons were white for approx 30 seconds before
filling.

Robert

I have delays like that too sometimes.

I can have an OS here, where it takes
a minute to a minute and a half before
the networking stack starts running.

Sometimes this is related to a .NET update
and the Windows Firewall is written in .NET.
NGEN has to run and compile assemblies or some
sort of story like that, before the networking
stack can run. The networking status doesn't
go green, until Microsoft contacts a simple web
server of theirs, one that returns very little data
and the returned packet proves that networking
is operational. The firewall seems to block that.

Paul