Opening Word documents from IE LAG Windows 7 IE8

I'm having a lot of trouble opening documents from a network share in word using IE.

The documents are located in a network share which is mapped to a virtual directory. The documents are accessed by URLs that link to the virtual directory.

There is now a huge lag (sometimes up to a minute or two!) from when clicking on the link to the document opening in word. The 'loading disc' in IE just keeps spinning and nothing happens. 开发者_开发技巧 Sometimes a pop up box appears with 'opening file - (address)' but it still takes ages.

I've tried setting in the registry to open the files directly in ie but to no avail.

Anyone have any ideas?

Steve