Same here, I’ll be reading say a page in a forum and then try to back out and it just freezes. The only way to get out after that is to start task manager and close IE7 completely and start over.
For me this issue is happening on a completely fresh OS reformat with Vista/SP1 32 Bit install with all of the latest updates as of Friday.
Just a suggestion: Uninstall the updates. Many people may not agree with what I do but I have set my update settings to not install but to notify me when updates become available. When I am notified I click the view available updates that is in small print just below the Install Updates button just to check what they are. Then I check the askwoody.com website and do what they reccomend which is usualy to wait till they have deemed whether or not the update is stable or not. Basically what they do is find out if users are experiencing problems with their computers after they have installed them. If users are they reccomend to wait until the issues are resolved and when they are they let you know when to install. If there are not causing problems they let you know to go ahead and install. This is a bit of a hassel but it keeps you away from problems. I do this because I too have had problems after installing updates. I still haven't installed the critical update that came out last week. I just check this site once a day and wait for the green light. I hope you find this of some help. GOOD LUCK!