Safari takes minutes to become responsive after launch (favicon/cache bug?)

Question

This problem is driving my crazy. Seem to have had it forever across all my macs and just can't believe I'm alone.
If I restart my mac and launch Safari, it will launch in a few bounces BUT it remains un-usable for literally minutes. The homepage half loads then beach ball time, not of the interface buttons respond. This goes on for 5+ minutes. When it does let me interact it's slow but after a few minutes more it will go back to normal. If I look in my bookmarks menu I notice all the favicons have reverted to the general bookmark icon.
This happens every single time I restart my mac without fail. I'm forever force quitting, waiting and twiddling my thumbs for it to wake up.
Surely I can't be alone. This problem is much more noticable on my CD macbook than it is on my C2D iMac. The issue was the same with safari 3 as it is with v4.

Answer 1

The following usually works on both Tiger and Leopard:
(First, if yours is an Intel Mac, check that Safari is not running in Rosetta, which is enough to slow it to a crawl.)
Adding DNS codes to your Network Settings, should gives good results in terms of speed-up:
Open System Preferences/Network. Double click on your connection type, or select it in the drop-down menu. Click on TCP/IP and in the box marked 'DNS Servers' enter the following two numbers:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
(An explanation of why that is both safe and a good idea can be read here: http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/opendsn-what-is-opendns-why-required-2/2587 / )
Whilst in System Preferences/Network you should also turn off 'IPv6' in your preference pane, as otherwise you may not get the full speed benefit (the DNS resolver will default to making SRV queries). If you want to know what IPv6 is:
This is Apple's guidance on iPv6:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8708.html
Click on Apply Now and close the window.
Restart Safari, and repair permissions.
If that didn't do it, then try this as well:
Empty Safari's cache (from the Safari menu), then close Safari.
Go to Home/Library/Safari and delete the following files:
form values
download.plist
Then go to Home/Library/Preferences and delete
com.apple.Safari.plist
Repair permissions (in Disk Utility).
Start up Safari again, and things should have improved.
Less likely, but possible, is that the slowness is caused by a Trojan such as the one called 'DNSChanger' or 'OSZ.RSPlug', which can alter the DNS settings of your network connection. This particular Trojan can be inadvertently installed if you have come across certain Quicktime movies where got a window stating that you have to download and install a particular codec in order to see the video.
If you have agreed to that installation, your system can be infected and your DNS settings altered, which results in your system using the wrong DNS servers, which can slow web surfing to a crawl.
This can be fixed by downloading and running a freeware utility called DNSChanger Removal Tool which you can download from here:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/33696
Once you have run that utility you have to re-boot your Mac, then reset Safari, and re-enter your DNS settings in System Preferences/Network.