title: Why are signed assemblies slow to load?
body: <p>I encountered a strange problem this week that I can't explain: I switched my application to use the signed version of some third party assemblies (Xceed Grid and some of their other components) and the application start time went into the toilet.  Each time the application loaded a signed assembly, it took 30 seconds to load.  Application start went from 5 seconds to over 90 seconds.  What the heck is going on here?!</p>
  
  <p>Some other info:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>This is a WinForms app running under .NET 3.5 SP1.</li>
  <li>The computer had no internet connection (on purpose, for security).</li>
  </ul>