 I also had same problem. I corrected problem with red dawn's reply below back on May 20. posted by evermore. titled IE8. There is away to bring that thread up with this post but I don't know how. You can find it though by going back to may 20th date. I hope this helps. I would put money on it being your SpywareBlaster's immunization function that is causing the slow start in IE. Temporarily disable SpywareBlaster to see if there's any difference. See the links below. [URL]#entry77297 (post #66) [URL]  
I recently installed IE 8 on my XP Home system, It is very slow to open. Previously there was a thread about IE 8 opening slowly but I can no longer find this thread. I am running Spybot with Immuminzations and Spyware Blaster.  Can anyone offer any advice?  Annie
IE 8 slow to open