bug#26321: 25.1; (require 'package) takes minutes on Windows

[Geoffrey S. Knauth]

emacs -Q
M-: (require 'package) RET

;;; wait a couple of minutes, then finally the evaluation finishes:
package

This only happens on Windows, and it only started happening a few weeks
ago.  Before that, my Emacs experience on Windows was fine.

I do not see this problem on macOS or GNU/Linux.

-----



In GNU Emacs 25.1.1 (x86_64-w64-mingw32)
 of 2016-11-15 built on LAPHROAIG
Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 6.3.9600
Configured using:
 'configure --without-dbus --without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2
 -static -g3''

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: ENU
  locale-coding-system: cp1252

Major mode: Fundamental

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  buffer-read-only: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Quit
package

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message dired format-spec rfc822 mml
mml-sec password-cache epg gnus-util mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode
mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047
rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util help-fns mail-prsvr mail-utils package
epg-config seq byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile cl-extra help-mode
easymenu cconv cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib time-date mule-util tooltip
eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel
dos-w32 ls-lisp disp-table w32-win w32-vars term/common-win tool-bar dnd
fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode
lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select
scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame
cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai
tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian
slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer
cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files
text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule
custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote w32notify w32 multi-tty
make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 97731 8404)
 (symbols 56 20513 0)
 (miscs 48 89 140)
 (strings 32 19300 5252)
 (string-bytes 1 561490)
 (vectors 16 13463)
 (vector-slots 8 442515 4880)
 (floats 8 181 46)
 (intervals 56 280 47)
 (buffers 976 19))