I'm kind of thinking it has to do with a program called NeoScene by Cineform. There is a process related to NeoScene called CineFormActiveMetadataStatusViewer.exe which is set to run during startup. I've had this software running without problems for about a month on this computer. The reason I have a feeling that this process might be causing the slow bootup is because during what seems to be the lag time which isn't normal - I can see on the bottom of my screen what looks like a minimized window on the taskbar which says Cineform and with the Cineform logo.
This minimized window of Cineform during boot up is familiar, but normally it appears for just about one second whereas now it stays there for nearly two minutes.
If I try to do anything - like open a window, start an application, even open up the Task Manager - while this minimized Cineform window is visible in the taskbar, it will cause the computer to freeze up completely. Then I have no choice but to force a restart. If I wait the minute or two, the minimized Cineform window goes away and I can continue working normally.
Just to clear any questions - I did not install any new software or updates just before this started happening.
I tried restoring Windows to a restore point two days before this started happening but this did not help.
Can someone please help me figure out how to resolve this problem?