F11 causes extreme delays during debugging

Tech-Archive recommends: Speed Up your PC by fixing your registry

I set a breakpoint in my C++/MFC project. The breakpoint triggers and
I start debugging. When I

want to step into a function call which returns a CString, the IDE
hangs for 30-60 seconds. This is, as you might guess, extremely
frustrating!

Consider this line of code:
GetActiveView()->GetDocument()->GetPathName(); // break here
F11, Shift+F11, F11, Shift+F11, F11 = HANG!

Functions with simple return values, such as basic types and pointers,
do not cause a lockup. Also note that this behavior has been seen on
multiple computers, with somewhat different configurations:

Windows XP SP2 + all fixes
Office 2003/2007, Internet Explorer 6.0/7.0
Visual Studio 2003/2005/2008 (All versions show the same behavior)
Visual Assist X 10.4.1624 (Disabling it does not help)
Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 (Uninstalling it does not help)


The error first occurred in December 2007, so my theory is that a
specific Windows Update is the cause.

Any ideas? Any help is greatly appreciated!

/Chris, Sweden
.