It’s not a RAM issue. I have had the same problem since installing Avast 8 Free. Other versions were fine. I have 8gb of RAM along with an AMD quad core 3.84ghz CPU running Win 7 64bit. I build and repair computers so I do know what to enable or disable during Windows boot up. I run a clean and fast system. Avast 8 Free just slows it to a crawl during a cold boot. One the system is booted and Avast finishes releasing my computer all is well until the next cold boot. Changing settings in Avast to let Windows boot first has no effect on the problem. The only time the problem goes away is when I uninstall Avast 8 Free and try another antivirus program. Then doing a proper uninstall of that program and reinstalling Avast 8 Free brings the problem right back again. While I still love Avast and recommend it on all the systems I build/repair I think the program has become too bloated. Just like what happened to AVG years ago. I have seen this boot up slowness on Windows 7 32bit and 64bit systems as well as Win XP systems.