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I am running Windows 8.1.

After I log in, nothing comes up on the screen for 3+ minutes, and then after that Windows Explorer opens and then all my other startup programs run. I am able to CTRL + ALT + DELETE and run Task Manager while Windows Explorer hasn't opened yet though.

A couple of months ago (I've had this problem for a while) I opened Task Manager, ran Process Monitor through it, and watched what was happening. The thing that caught my eye was that Windows Explorer was trying to delete registry entries in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UFH\SHC, but could not find any of the entries it tried to delete.

This goes on for the entire time that Windows Explorer is still not visible (3+ minutes).

Here is a picture of what Process Monitor shows

As you can see, it tries to delete the registry entries, but none of the names are found.

When I run Windows in safe mode it doesn't have this problem.

Here are my installed programs

My questions are: what is Windows Explorer doing, why is it doing this, and what can I do to resolve the problem? I've tried uninstalling Avira before to see if that was the cause but it didn't help. I've also tried to disable all startup programs (not going into safe mode) and that didn't seem to fix it either.

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  • This smells like spyware/virus trying to do something. Have you done a scan for either of these lately?
    – LPChip
    Mar 8, 2016 at 23:34
  • So use a program to identify which program in your normal boot configuration is to blame.
    – Ramhound
    Mar 9, 2016 at 0:03
  • @LPChip Yes I have but I will do one again just to make sure.
    – Nickel
    Mar 9, 2016 at 2:31
  • @Ramhound A program like that would be?
    – Nickel
    Mar 9, 2016 at 2:32
  • I always use something like Autoruns
    – Ramhound
    Mar 9, 2016 at 3:04

1 Answer 1

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Try to start regedit, find HKEY_Current_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UFH\SHC select all entries under that key and delete them.

This is ONLY "Start Menu Cache" and should not change anything, it will be rebuilt (with correct numbers) on next logon.

After that you will have quick logons again for a while.

You could make a .reg file or policy for that but that needs to be run "on logout", those entries are useful (when they are correct).

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