Welcome Screen -- Lingers

How much do you have loading at startup? If you have a lot, then it's not abnormal for the PC to pause there while it works.

Is the machine older? How much memory does it have?

thanks CTSNKY
i use tune-up to only start certain programs.
my computer is 18 mths old
2 gig of memory
amd athlon 64 3700+ 2.2 ghz

Is "tune-up" some sort of application?

What anti-virus are you running? Norton will suck the LIFE out of any computer.

When the Welcome screen finally releases is your dekstop totally loaded or does it take more time after that point?

You may want to think about posting a HijackThis log here, just to be sure things are as efficient as they can be and no bad guys are milling around in there.

HijackThis log?? whats that please.
tuneup is software programme supposed to tune up computer so it runs better,rectifying problems.

On the front page of the forums, there is one for posting HijackThis logs (and others). Read the stickies at the top of the forum for help.

Best of luck....