I've had this problem for the last few weeks. Opening the 3FC forums, or opening a thread in the forums, IE will freeze and then automatically close. This happens at least once a day, and only on 3FC.
WHen I see the lock up is about to happen-- I hit the stop button on the toolbar and then go button on the page it was trying to load and it happens for me.
but my requiring these actions is relatively new to the past month.
Wow! I've never had a problem with this site. I use Mozilla5.0 mostly but sometimes use IE7 I have Vista too. It always runs perfectly smooth for me. I don't pay a fee to use this site (never will pay a fee to use a forum) and it works fine. Maybe it's time for people to clean out their computers. Or run Lavasoft's Adaware, it's free too!