ArcMap, ArcCatalog slow to open on laptop with ample resources?

After contacting the appropriate IT admin, I recieved the following instructions, resulting in load times closer to my expectation: ArcMap now takes ~4s, ArcCatalog ~3s to load.

1. Install ArcGIS service pack 3 (this did not change boot time on its own)

2. run "esriremove.reg" to remove changes made by ArcGIS to the registry, the contents of esriremove.reg are:

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]
   "ARCGIS_LICENSE_FILE"=-
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESRI\License]
   "LICENSE_SERVER"=-
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ESRI\License]
   "LICENSE_SERVER"=-
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESRI\License10.0]
   "LICENSE_SERVER"=-
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ESRI\License10.0]
   "LICENSE_SERVER"=-
   

3. re-install the single-user / off-site license (I had started with the single-user / off-site license, so this is not in and of itself the only issue).

Are you connecting to a license server on a network? I've found that when I connect to our license server here at work from my home laptop, AM and AC do take longer to launch - but still not 1 minute, more like 15 seconds as opposed to about 3-5 seconds at the office. Also, as I mention in a comment in Jakub's answer, if you are referencing data (in a existing MXD of course) over a slow network, opening the MXD or even a ArcCatalog connection can be brutally slow. I used to have to reference data in Houston from Arkansas over small pipes and it was painful, as was the license server connection.

ArcMap and ArcCatalog are generally slow to open and many complain about their performance in general.

I have more less the same specs on my desktop (except I have 12GB RAM, not that it matters much since ArcGIS is a 32 bit app, and a 15,000 RPM hard drive) On this machine ArcCatalog opnes in 28 seconds the first time and in 15 seconds the second time I open it.

It seems that SDD (solid state) hard drives makes a significant difference because on my laptop with the same specs you have but with an SDD hard drive ArcCatalog opens in 12 seconds the first time and in 7 seconds the second time I open it. (Same folder connections as the desktop)

Did you try to open new ArcMap document or an existing documents containing layers and data? The speed of opening an ArcMap document is dependent on how much data you have in your document.

As for ArcCatalog, reducing the number of Folder Connections (especially those located on a network) seems to improve performance.