https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250428-00/?p=111121
..Imagine my surprise when someone pointed me to a support article titled “The Welcome screen may be displayed for 30 seconds during the logon process after you set a solid color as the desktop background in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2.” Why is logon slower with a solid background?..
The code to report that the wallpaper is ready was inside the wallpaper bitmap code, which means that if you don’t have a wallpaper bitmap, the report is never made, and the logon system waits in vain for a report that will never arrive…