[BetterRed]

Just a reminder this thread is about slow start and system 'freezes' when Calibre starts

My post about my Windows starts was to offer a clue as to why I don't see what Dr Chiper saw on slow Calibre starts and system 'freezes' - when it appeared that Calibre was accessing the windows/system32/catroot & catroot2 directories.

As I said

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Something in the innards of Windows must trigger the ferreting around in the catroot directories on a 'first opportunity, do once only' basis - ie a caching regime.

cybmole offered another & better clue

Originally Posted by cybmole

some windows services (in Win 7 anyway) can be set to auto+delayed

The Services I have on Automatic (Delayed Start) are shown the attachment, the Windows Update Service (WUS) is one of them. Pretty sure that's the factory setting.

The catroot directories that Dr Chiper saw as apparently being accessed by Calibre contain all the Windows Updates - they're there so you can selectively uninstall them. I think it's reasonable to assume that WUS accesses those directories when it starts

Auto Delayed is 'reputed' to delay the start of a service until the system is 'stable', see http://superuser.com/questions/28565...indows-service

But on my system the Google Update Service doesn't start until I fire up Chrome or Earth and the NET 4.0 Services don't start until I load VS or a .NET 4 program

So I'm guessing that the slow speed and freezes experienced by the OP and Dr Chiper may be the result of WUS starting in the middle of a calibre start because of some indirect trigger from calibre. This would explain why it only happens after a reboot. I doubt there is anything Kovid can do about this.

Perhaps one of the 29 programs I have in my Windows start triggers the starting of WUS, because by the time my system is ready to use WUS has started. Or it might be because I have WU set to look for updates at 03:00 in the morning when the computer is powered down, so it has a look when I turn it on around 07:00am - I'm assuming WU uses WUS.

@jation if you are still around, have a look to see if WUS is running immediately after a reboot, if it isn't try starting it in Task Manager - wait a wee while (I would anticipate your pointer will show a spinner) and then start Calibre.

If that 'fixes it' then you could set WUS to start Automatic, then the delay will be in Windows startup rather than application startup. You might also want to check out Control Panel->Windows Update->Change settings

BR