When I boot up my Vista PC my desktop is displayed in about 30-40 seconds.
But then it takes another 4 minutes for Avast to start, so I can’t do anything in those 4 minutes.
I’m trying to find out what is going on that takes Avast so long to start. Thanks.
Which avast! version are you using?
Be precise 
(like 9.0.2007)
Could try to get Vista to optimize the files that are relevant to the boot.
Start a CMD prompt in administrator mode and enter the command
rundll32 advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
It probably takes about 30 minutes to complete.
Have you changed Avast to startup type to "Automatic (Delayed Start) by any chance.
To check : Start>Run>“services.msc”>Find “Avast Antivirus” and check the Startup type.
Also was this a clean install you done or was it an install over the top of v8?
I’m running Avast 2014.9.0.2006, but it was doing this prior to the installation of version 9 as well.
How do I tell if the command rundll32 advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks is running? When I enter it on the CMD screen nothing to indicate that anything is running appears.
Services are not delaying the start of Avast. It is automated.
Is there some piece of software available that logs the start/end time for everything that happens during startup?
I started logging in the Vista Event Viewer and then rebooted. When the system became available I found this in the Event Viewer
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance
Date: 11/4/2013 10:32:24 AM
Event ID: 101
Task Category: Boot Performance Monitoring
Level: Warning
Keywords: Event Log
User: LOCAL SERVICE
Computer: Den
Description:
This application took longer than usual to start up, resulting in a performance degradation in the system startup process:
File Name : instup.exe
Friendly Name : avast! Antivirus Installer
Version : 9.0.2006.159
Total Time : 14306ms
Degradation Time : 6806ms
Incident Time (UTC) : 11/4/2013 5:29:48 PM
Event Xml:
101
1
3
4002
33
0x8000000000010000
11094
Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational
Den
2013-11-04T17:29:48.656Z
11
instup.exe
27
avast! Antivirus Installer
13
9.0.2006.159
14306
6806
56
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\Setup\instup.exe
17
avast! Antivirus
15
AVAST Software
So it looks like Avast is my problem, but what can I do do fix it? Thanks.