IE Sluggish At Startup

If internet Explorer takes a long time loading when you first start it up due to it trying to detect your proxy settings, and you do not have a proxy, you can disable this annoyance by selecting 'Tools->Internet Options' and clicking on the 'Connections' tab, then the 'LAN Settings' button. In the dialog box that appears, uncheck all the boxes, particularly the one labeled 'Automatically detect settings'. Click 'OK', then 'OK' again. Now when you launch the browser, it will get right to work instead of fooling around looking for something that doesn't exist.