I had a very similar “Windows 11 takes minutes before Wi-Fi becomes usable / login feels stuck” issue and found a cause I had not seen mentioned in the usual Wi-Fi-driver/router/network-reset advice.
In my case the Wi-Fi adapter and router were not the root problem. Once Windows actually released the logon/session path, WLAN connected almost immediately.
Symptoms:
- After reboot, Wi-Fi was not usable at the sign-in screen.
- After entering PIN/password, Windows sat on the spinning dots / pre-desktop phase for about 2-3 minutes.
- Once the desktop appeared, Wi-Fi connected almost immediately.
- Network resets, Intel Wi-Fi mode changes, startup cleanup, and testing with a local account did not fix it.
What finally identified it:
Winlogon logs showed authentication succeeded quickly, but Winlogon event 12 / desktop release was delayed by about 168 seconds.
Services diagnostics showed `camsvc` (`Capability Access Manager Service`) was requested at the same time and only reported fully running right before Winlogon resumed.
The culprit was:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal
That file had grown to about 58 GiB. After stopping `camsvc`, deleting only:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-shm
and then starting `camsvc` again, the next reboot was fixed.
Before cleanup:
- Auth success -> desktop release: ~168 seconds
- WLAN connected only after that
After cleanup:
- Auth success -> desktop release: ~0.7 seconds
- WLAN AutoConfig started before authentication
- Wi-Fi connected immediately afterward
So if someone has the same “Wi-Fi takes minutes after reboot” or “login spins for minutes before desktop” pattern, it may be worth checking the size of:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal
Notes:
- Do not permanently disable `camsvc`.
- I did not delete the main `CapabilityAccessManager.db`.
- The folder is protected; normal admin access may not be enough. I used a temporary SYSTEM scheduled task to do the cleanup.
- This may not be every delayed-Wi-Fi case, but it exactly matched mine.
I also made a small PowerShell helper for my own machine. I’m not posting it as “random script from the internet, just run this”, but the shape of it was:
- Run from an elevated PowerShell window.
- Create a temporary scheduled task running as SYSTEM, because the folder is SYSTEM-owned.
- Stop `camsvc`.
- Delete only `CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal` and `CapabilityAccessManager.db-shm`.
- Start `camsvc` again.
- Log the before/after file sizes.
- Delete the temporary scheduled task.
The important part is not the script itself, but the diagnostic: check whether `CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal` is huge and whether `camsvc` startup lines up with the Winlogon delay.
If anyone wants the exact PowerShell helper I used, I can share it, but I’d strongly suggest reading it first and only running it elevated if you understand what it does. I don't want any trouble. I'm here to help, after 2 days of pain trying to fix this and nothing I found on the internet helped.
