MVP John Paul Cook recently pointed out a really interesting post by Microsot SQL Server expert Euan Garden  Euan's blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/euanga/archive/2006/07/11/662053.aspx) pointed out that by changing IE security settings, all .NET applications using signed assemblies can start more quickly.

In a default configuration, when you start SSMS (or Visual Studio), a connection to the Internet is made to check for certificate revocations. If there isn't any network connectivity, startup is particularly slow. I disabled the check for certificate revocation and it dramatically reduced the SSMS startup time.

Mr. Cook makes a case that Euan's fix can open some security risks.  But he goes on to point out that you probably also have some machines, such as virtual machines, training machines, QA machines, or even some development servers.

Try it out and see if it doesn't give you a boost in startup speed.

Cheers,

-Kevi