very slow startup and slow shutdown

I'm on a PC with a hard drive (no SSD) and 64-bit Win 10 Version 1909 Build 18363.1198.Up until a couple of weeks ago, it took about a minute to start up and shut down quickly, too; despite having MANY apps and programs. The last two weeks, I have very slow startup and shutdown. After about 10 to 15 minutes, the PC works fine, except that yesterday I got a blue screen and had to restart the PC to resolve it.

I confirmed that I still have very few background apps. I checked the taskmgr startup items. I even ran Sysinternals Autoruns (although, admittedly, I'm not 100% certain I knew what I was doing!) I ran Crystal Disk Info, to ensure the problem is not my hard drive.

Can anyone suggest what else I can try?

Thanks.

Superfetch is enabled, automatic.
Neither drivers nor BIOS need updating.

So that's not it.

Thank you, Zinou, for suggesting I check those.

Hi, Zinou!

Thanks for your suggestion. I finally ran a boot trace. The 7z files are too big to attach to this post, so I uploaded them to Dropbox. Unfortunately, I don't know how to share them with you. Please advise.

Thanks again

You can also upload to transfertnow or wetransfer sharing websites and share the link.

Sorry, I just now figured it out! Here are the files:

Dropbox - 11-22-2020.12-10-56.Boot_1.etl.NGENPDB.zip - Simplify your life
Dropbox - 11-22-2020.12-10-56.Boot_1.zip - Simplify your life

I tried to update my BIOS, but when I searched online for updated Firmware, I got the message, "The best drivers for your device are already installed." I made sure my Windows Updates were up to date, too.

It may be that one time I walked away before logging in, but that's not the only delay: It used to take me a max of 90 seconds to be fully up and running with CPU down to 6% or 7%, and Disk down to 5%. I just now restarted using my phone's stopwatch, and it took over four minutes from the moment the PC turned back on until my login name came up. I immediately logged in. It took almost another minute for the shortcuts on my desktop and taskbar to appear, during which time the PC accepted no keyboard input. As soon as I could, I opened Chrome, exactly 6 minutes after the PC had turned back on. It was still laggy, so I checked taskmgr, and my CPU still was at 90%.

Also, when I opened Chrome this time, it opened to an unfamiliar page, although it used to open to Google.com. So I checked my Chrome settings. Home page still is set to Google, but new tabs -- which used to be set to blank new tabs, now are set to open the Microsoft new tab page. There no longer is an option for a blank tab. Is that due to a Windows Update?

How do I know whether the unfamiliar page that came up really is the default Microsoft new tab page, or if it is a phony malware page? The url box is blank. Image is attached.

Thank you for taking the time to help!