Hello there @ubi-borealis !

Even before making this post on the forums, I've tried the troubleshooting steps and they didn't work.
I've now tried even disabling the background applications as you mentioned, and still no change whatsoever.

So unfortunately the problem still persists.

From the new patch onward I've been having a problem wherein I start the game:
 - Acces the main menu
 - Press "Continue"
 - And then in the Animus loading screen the game freezez up, and doesn't load
It does not go to a "Not responding" status in the task manager either, it just stays frozen up like that.
I've left it going for an hour now and it still doesn't do anything.