That means one of IE's plugins or add-ons is failing or hanging when it loads.
By using the extoff switch you make IE load without any addons.
You'll have to check which add-ons are causing the problem.
So now that you have IE loaded, go to Tools, Manage Add-ons and disable all of them.
Close IE and open again but this time normally.
If it opens o.k. enable one add-on, close, and try again.
Keep enabling add-ons until you get the unwanted behavior back make a note of which add-on it was and see if there's an updated version for it, or just keep it disabled.
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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.