I've just started getting the same problem
Windows 2000 servers running SP4 and using AD
Clients are a mix of 2000 - sp4 and XPpro sp1
I've been running the servers afor about 2 years now and they have been absolutely fine, so has the whole network
Then I wen't on a MCP course and decided to put a bit of what i've learned into action
DFS, replication, group policy, permissions tweaking, auditing, quotas and such.
Now i have windows 2000 clients which run fine but windows XP pro clients which take 5 minutes when "Applying computer settings..." this only happens for the first login of the day. Subsequent logins that day go at normal speed
Its absolutely infuriating. I've wasted over a week trying to sort this problem out. I've undone all the configuration work i've done trying to backtrack. I've applied all the patches and SPs i can find but nothing seems to sort it out
I've done plenty of searches on the web for solutions and noticed that I'm not the only one having these troubles.
It also seems I'm not the only one without a solutuion.