Every so often the docks just do not respond for up to 20 seconds. Enabling fast boot does not seem to matter in that respect.
Would changing the process priority help? What would you recommend?
I can set the priority as either: idle, below normal, normal, above normal, high, and real time (says real time is not recommended, though).
Thanks for some advice.
Regards, Emil

Emil, don't mess with the process's priority (that wouldn't help either).

The dock blocking for up to 20 seconds is not normal *at all*. Is there a pattern or is it completely random? How often does that happen?

Also, do you have any item in the dock pointing somewhere else other than the local disks (e.g. on your local area network or something like that)?

Now that you mention it - it happens generally when I have not been at the computer for a while, and on reflection, the delay is not limited to Nexus - I suspected it because generally it is where I go first, to start whatever program I am opening. So it may be just my system working on something in the background, like Genie Time Line, even though it does not always show (in the tray, or in the task manager). If process priority should be left alone, do you think there is anything else I could try?

No, all local on the desktop machine.

Thanks very much for having given me such quick response, and apologies for apparently having blamed Nexus unjustly Perhaps I will just have to learn live with it.
Thanks and regards, Emil