Improving the performance of MSN

I my self have endless trouble with MSN freezing and lagging and general stuffing up. I found a way to improve the speed and stability of MSN. Then i lose it........ Then i re-found it and as i haven't seen it written anywhere else here it is :).

This is not recommended for simple users though as I'm going to explain how to edit the registry and this can cause some rather nasty problems.

Proceed at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any problems i cause. Although i will try and help if i can :). Generally if you do this and it goes wrong undo it do the steps in reverse and DON'T touch anything you shouldn't.

Step 1. Go to Start and RUN and type in Regedit.
Step 2. Navigate to the following location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Step 3. Locate the following 4 entry's:

• Default_Page_URL
• Default_Search_URL
• Search Page
• Start Page

Step 4. Now open these up one after the other and change them all to about:blank
Step 5. Exit Regedit and your done :).

In the unlikely event you want the URL's back here they are:

Default_Page_URL http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&pver=6&ar=msnhome
Default_Search_URL http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&ar=iesearch
Search Page http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&ar=iesearch
Start Page http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd={SUB_PRD}&clcid={SUB_CLSID}&pver={SUB_PVER}&ar=home

These URL'S are nothing special and simply lead to no where or live.com. I'm not sure what purpose they serve apart from to slow MSN down (typical Microsoft :P). It may affect the MSN search function although Ive never used this in my life so i don't know.

Hope this helps people with problems with there MSN running slowly and freezing. Any problems you can email me on yocal2150[at]gmail(dot)com