Can a firewall cause slow performance on the initial load up of Windows an window accounts?

This is a weird question, but here it goes. Before I left for vacation a week ago, I uninstalled AGV free and installed Yahoo norton protection (the yellow the sign on the toolabr was annoying me and AGV does not have a firewall). Well, I have just come back and now the initinal loadup of my computer takes longer and when I load up my account on this computer, it takes twice as long. I do not use this computer alone, but I have already checked and nothing has either been downloaded or installed in the week of my absence. After that load up, the computer runs smoothly. Is this the cause of Norton or a more sinister item? (As of yet, the virus scan has found nothing.)

Can a firewall cause slow performance on the initial load up of Windows an window accounts?hijackthis

Yes, especially if you dont have lots of memory. Use hijackthis to disable items that start up with windows.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/progr...

Can a firewall cause slow performance on the initial load up of Windows an window accounts?malware

First off, if you are using a Router, which most people today are using....Why are you worried about a Firewall? Your Router is the best protection that you could have, provided it is set up correctly. If you are not using a Router (and I would suggest getting one, even if you are not networking. They are cheap, around $60) Windows Firewall is more than adequate.