Fetching user settings Properties.Settings.Default taking longer ~50sec

I have the code below that reads user settings in a .net 4.5.2 console application and looks like it is taking about 50 sec to return.

var someSettings = Properties.Settings.Default.SomeSettings

This only happens in one production environment(Windows 10) and we could not figure out why. The particular setting in question is not in a file on the network. It is just returning the default setting value. I am not sure how .net application resolves the settings under the hood.

Could someone please suggest what to look for? Happy to provide more details if needed. Thanks in advance

Same question posted here
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68580418/fetching-user-settings-taking-longer-50sec