windows 7 fast in safe mode but extremely slow in normal mode

And by extremely slow I mean startup time of the order of 5-10 minute. And all the applications make me wait. Sometimes an application does not even start properly. Basically it's unusable for any realistic work. Funny thing is that cpu usage in the task manager is constantly <10%. Memory consumption is 60-75%. How is it so slow?

My first guess is antivirus but how do I uninstall it when the computer is unusable in normal mode?

Normal mode there are 80+ processes running while in safe mode there are 30- processes running.

Solution 1:

In safe mode click on the start menu and type msconfig, then enter. Select Diagnostic mode.

All AV and other services and startup programs will be disabled when you boot into normal mode.

You may then reenter msconfig and selectively check items you want to boot under the Services tab and under the startup tab. This will allow you to determine the program causing it, you may then uninstall it.

NOTE: your computer may not work as you expect if you have certain services disabled under msconfig, so if you have issues you may have something disabled that your computer needs!

Solution 2:

I had the exact same problem as OP (Fast safe mode, slow normal login), but the other answers didn't fix my issue.

In fact, it was caused by Windows Driver Profiler Start Menu > Search > verifier.exe. Indeed, I activated it a few days ago because of several BSOD caused by failing drivers, and forgot to disable it. Once I disabled it ("delete previous config" option), everything was restored back to normal.

I guess that the same goes for other kinds of system-wide profilers, such as Windows Boot Profiler and so on.

So if the other answers did not fix your issue, you should check whether you still have a profiler activated somewhere.