Argh... Vista beta 2/IE 7

[Edit June 12, 2006 6:39 PM] Workaround: A workaround to this issue (besides System Restore) is to reset all internet settings by going to Control Panel --> Internet Options (search "internet") --> Advanced Tab --> Reset Internet Explorer Settings... worked for me.  Solution originally posted by Lougan here: [Link].

Hello, I wrote about this problem a while ago but I can't seem to figure out how to fix it and its bugging me.  So, I thought I would write a little bit more about the problem...

So the issue is that IE 7 just stops working for web pages. 
So, first, when I open IE, it remains blank, doing nothing:



Surprisingly, the UI remains responsive:

 

But, checking in task manager, IE is continuously eating all the CPU it can get:



Also surprisingly, it is able to open local html pages fine:



One thing to notice in all the above is the messed up toolbar back and forward buttons. Not sure why those are like that and whether it is related to the other problem of not being able to open any non-local pages.

One other side-note - I wanted to try to change everything to open with Firefox but couldnt figure out how exactly to do it.



I can change it to Firefox for .htm, .html and file extensions. However, I don't know how to just change it for protocols - nothing happens when I try to change those. I should note that I did want to report this using the problem reporting tool.  But when I try to get to it from the feedback icon, the problem is it tries to open the link to the tool using IE (which doesn't work).

Any ideas on what's wrong?  Like I said before, restarting the computer doesnt work.  The only thing that works is to use System Restore to a point before it starts happening.  But that only lasts for a little while before it starts happening again.  Weirdest problem.