Lots of people are experiencing browser freezes and crashes that didn’t happen with earlier versions of Internet Explorer. There are also many things IE 8 won’t let you do, due to its default security settings. Loosening up IE’s security relieves some of both problems.
Bob Rankin (popular internet technical advisor) recommends turning off SmartScreen Filter. Apparently [...]

When you open a Microsoft Word document that you have received as an e-mail attachment, Word automatically switches to reading layout view. If you don’t want to use reading layout view for e-mail attachments, clear the Allow starting in Reading Layout check box on the General tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu).

Change the default so that Outlook doesn’t block images in all messages

On the Tools menu, click Options.
Click the Security tab.
Under Download Pictures, click Change Automatic Download Settings.
Clear the Don’t download pictures or other content automatically in HTML e-mail check box.