gnome, i think i have the same thing happening to me. i have win xp pro and norton antivirus. whenever i boot my computer, as the tray icons are loading (and norton antivirus) my computer is very, very slow. i usually just wait til the hard drive stops being so active before i start a program. it's annoying. i have nav auto update turned off, so i know it's not the auto update that's slowing it down. i've also tried turning off system restore, and it's not that.