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Tomilsonw's avatar
Tomilsonw
Iron Contributor
Mar 06, 2025

Windows 11 takes long to boot

My PC takes between 60-80 seconds before the Windows logo comes up. I created a Process Monitor logfile and in there were a dozen entries with Result=CANCELLED which had duration of 3 to 17 seconds. The one taking 17.8 seconds was trying to access a file, "C:\Users\Public\AccountPictures\S-1-5-21-3415986207-50523673-2978598619-1001\{F0230BAE-7D60-44C0-B949-B0EF3DE3E0FF}-Image192.jpg" which does not exist. It does exist in "C:\Users\Public\Public AccountPictures\" so there is a mismatch in my system. I clean installed Windows 11 two years ago and have installed all upgrades and that's what's be done to the system. As for the other long duration entries they all exist i the C:\windows\system32\config folder. What's the problem with my system and what can I do to fix it?



I searched the registry for one of the file names and found
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AccountPicture\Users\S-1-5-21-3415986207-50523673-2978598619-1001 so the registry points to the wrong folder. Folder AccountPicture dos not exist in my system, it's called Public AccountPictures.

3 Replies

  • CalebStone's avatar
    CalebStone
    Silver Contributor

    If there's a reference to the invalid path, you can:
    * Remove or correct the registry entries pointing to the non-existent folder.
    * Or, manually delete the invalid account picture references in user account settings.

  • Quincos's avatar
    Quincos
    Iron Contributor

    Since your system is fresh-ish and updated regularly, the main suspect is the mismatched profile picture path causing Windows to hang while trying to load user info. Fixing that should improve boot times.

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