The ugly Defender also cause slow icon display for me in Explorer. Stop Defender (set disableAntiSpyware to 1 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Defender) and look if this improves performance.
this question is about RSAT. Ask it in the Server forum and upload the folcer C:\Windows\logs\CBS http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/158-windows-server-2008-2008r2-2012/
you miss the impact of the UAC. When you type cmd.exe in the startmenu search, make a rightclick and select "Run as adminitrator". read the link I posted
having such options is always a good idea. I've collapsed the ribbon all the time and only use the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) feature. It would be nice to patch the QAT feature to allow more entries.
After the 2nd run you should get a message that the system is optimized. At this point the defrag.exe runs ans optimizes the boot. contact the IT admin and ask him which GPOs they apply and he should try to optimize (run them asynchronously if possible, don't use logon scripts) them.
you must open the cmd.exe as admin: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-do-I-run-an-application-once-with-a-full-administrator-access-token