[iravgupta]

Ok guys, before this argument ventures into the realms of fanboyism, let me make sure that we are all on the same page regarding the issue.
First of all, the system I am testing it on is an Acer Aspire 4736 notebook, with 2.2 GHz C2D, 3 GB RAM, Intel 4500MHD and featuring a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit with all updates in place. Apart from drivers, there is no other application installed. I then proceed by installing and updating MSE, and rebooting the system. At this point my observations are:
1. Opening a folder full of executable files, it takes significant time for each application`s icon to be rendered completely. In fact, its like a slowly dropping curtain. If you open the same folder again, the lag disappears, but appears again after a system reboot.
2. Opening the Add-Remove programs applet results in the same issue, as each application`s icon will take its own sweet time to render, again the curtain effect in its full glory. Even here, if you reopen the applet, the lag will be gone but if you do so after a reboot, the lag appears.
3. Download a file from your favorite browser, and try to save it in a folder which has some executable files. The 'Save As' dialog box will again take a good bit of time before it can render the folder contents easily.

At first, I thought that this happens because MSE has not yet completed a full scan of my system, and thus needs to scan each file before freeing it for explorer. But even after running a very long 'Full Scan' all observations reported above hold true.
The point to note here is that these issues are not so prominent in a 64-bit environment.
To repeat myself, this sort of behavior is exhibited by AVG too. Avira and avast! are thankfully not plagued by this problem.
Lets discuss how to deal with this and stop doubting each other`s technical prowess.