It seems that since about 6 months ago, there has been this annoying bug in windows XP that causes it to stall on “Applying computer settings” every 2nd time my machine is booted. Strangely enough, this has happened to me in two completely different environmments at two different workplaces.

Searching google didn’t come up with much, except this one thread: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Laptop-hangs-applying-computer-settings-t110037.html

I thought I would describe how to change these settings:

1. Open the control panel, open networking
   
   

   Control Panel

2. Open the network adapter that you use to connect (double-click the icon or click on link highlighted below)
   
   

   Control Panel, Networking

3. Scroll down to Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), click it, then click the “Properties” button.
   
   

   Networking Properties

4. In the TCP/IP Properties dialog, click “Advanced” button
   
   

   TCP/IP Properties

5. In the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog, click the WINS tab
   
   

   Advanced TCP Settings

6. Under the “NetBIOS setting” area, change to “Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP”
   
   

   Selecting NetBIOS over TCP/IP = Enabled

7. Click OK/Close to all dialogs
8. Reboot your computer to test – yay! fast logon!

Why this happens, I am not so sure. All I could suggest is that if NetBIOS is disabled on the Active directory server (most likely for security reasons) it will also be disabled on your computer.

The delay in logon probably occurs because a service is attempting to collect information using NetBIOS when it is not available. Making NetBIOS available effectively fixes the problem.