I had been having problems with XP taking several minutes while "loading personal settings" I tried all the usual suggestions eg taking all unneeded items out of start up, and checking I wasn't having any DHCP problems.

Then I discovered this Reg Hack which shows which files are actually being executed while windows is loading (rather than just saying loading personal settings):-

Show Verbose Security Status Messages (Windows 2000/XP) This setting allows you to configure Windows so that you receive verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status messages. This may be helpful to in troubleshooting slow startup, shutdown, logon, or logoff behaviour.

Open your registry and find or create this key:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> System

To enable verbose status messages create a new DWORD value called "verbosestatus" and set it to "1". (verbosestatus REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1))

An additional value called "DisableStatusMessages" forces status messages to be disabled, make sure this value does not exist or is set to "0". (DisableStatusMessages REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0))

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Registry Settings

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPolicies
System]
Value Name: verbosestatus
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = default, 1 = enable verbose status)

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPolicies
System]
Value Name: disablestatusmessages
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (1 = default, 0 = enable verbose status)