Windows 8.1 Pro x64 UEFI very slow boot and shutdown

I am using Pro and it is very slow compared to just Windows 8.  I just build this system a few months ago and I was enjoying it being bug free.  I put in a i7 4770k processor, Gigabyte ud5h z87 motherboard, 16 gigs of RAM, 240 Gig SSD, and a GeForce GTX 670 graphics card*;* it booted in 15 secs.  Since using the 8.1 update, my system takes +4 minutes to boot and about 5 minutes to shutdown.  Arrrg! I have updated all the drivers, I have re-flashed the bios, I tried a new user account and nothing works!! On top of this I have been trying to figure out why I have a memory leak!!! If I didn't have to reconfigure all my photography software I would rebuild the hard drive again and just stay with Windows 8.  Luckily, I only set one computer to 8.1 the others will stay at 8.0. 

Hey Microsoft!!! Fix this!! Or else I am switching my whole company to Apple the next time we need to upgrade!

My old desktop times are similar; and I just reduced the number of programs that start up. My wif'es Ultrabook is never more than 15 seconds boot--BUT she's not running PRO, just regular.W8. 

Me thinkds pro is slower--ist that true for anybody else??

Well I took the plunge and performed a full factory system recovery with my back up DVD's.  Once Windows 8 was backup and running I finished all the updates for Win8 then ran the Win 8.1 upgrade and voila! the startup and shutdown issues haven't reappeared!

Just going to spend the next few hours (groan) re-installing all my software office 2013 and Bitdefender 2013 etc...

After reading a few forums on this I did try several attempts to sort this issue with uninstalling the likes of Bitdefrender 2013 and removing the intel graphics 4000HD drivers and reinstalling them but this didn't sort the long shutdown and startup times. 

 I've now a system that's starting in 45 secs to desktop and shutdown in approx. 55 secs!  in my opinion Microsoft should have had a handle on this before so many were affected by rushed beta testing.

It's odd that some of us using SSDs and squeaky clean installs are having issues.

I mean, I'm using a brand new Sammy 840 EVO SSD on a SATA 6Gb/s Port and still getting relatively poor startup/shutdown times compared to Win8Pro.

I'm loathed to reinstall Win8Pro again because I'm tired of having to resintall Apps and Programs and tweak them as I like them.

I'm just going to stick this one out as I primarily game and use Adobe suite on this rig and the benefits of Win8.1 are there enough to warrant stick with it.

I too would install Win8 again but this being a dual-boot configuration and having a $h!t-ton of programs and projects, I really can't afford to do it.

Must be a W8.1 PRO issue. Can someone out there tell us they're having problems with just plain W8?