Slow boot next boot after Avast "emergency update" logged

I’m finding that my two PCs (both W7x32) boot up slowly the next boot after an Avast “emergency update” (at least I assume that’s what it is - of the type which Avast gives the .EXE a long name of seemingly random generated characters) is logged and allowed by my firewall (Comodo). Typically, instead of 30 seconds or so, it takes 3 or more minutes to boot. Subsequent boots are fine.

It first happened around 3 weeks or so ago. Although I couldn’t absolutely pin it on Avast at the time, it seemed likely as I restored both systems and observed what was happening and saw the emergency update being logged and then the next boot was slow.

Happened again today on my desktop PC. So I then booted my laptop (which hadn’t been used for a few days). First time it booted fine, but within a few minutes an Avast emergency update .exe had been logged in Comodo (first one of that type since the earlier instance around 3 weeks ago) . I then re-booted and, yup, slow boot (again 3 minutes or so).

So it clearly suggests that the issue emanates from Avast.

BTW the laptop was a fresh re-install only a few days before this first started to happen - so not affected by accumulated garbage.

I have also checked and this has happened with both V…2008 and V…2011.

So - is this a bug / bad behaviour? Or is it to be expected from now on?

Another similar issue with Avast’s emergency update here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=143809.0