This is the case with xp as well, (i have both OS)
Ie8 loads up and has a blank screen then after (7.5 seconds on xp) it loads th home page
Its the addons at the top - soz i dont use ie 8 a lot i like opera or mozilla firefox
just uninstall Addons - not close them
This just makes a minor differance, a differance of 2 -4 seconds