Can anything be done to improve performance in VS 2010?

I'm using VS 2010 since we're developing an app in .Net 4 and the performance is driving me crazy. It's mostly bad when I don't view the IDE for a while (such as when I get pulled away for a help desk call or come in in the morning).

I realize it's probably built in WPF which unloads its resources when unused, but the few minute delay while it loads everything back up is really annoying. I've also noticed some significant delays when opening files or compiling.

From superuser

• I've experienced this problem with VS2008 also esp on virtual machines.

  I believe it might be related to other services which are making use of the system while in a non-interactive state. For example virus scans and remote backups. It might not just be the VS system but some other system that is hogging the machine.

  Rachel : That is a possibility, we do have Symantec AntiVirus and I normally have a lot of other programs open at once on my machine. A lot are MS programs too and they all seem to freeze up at around the same time (VS, Visio, Outlook, Word, Enterprise Manager, etc)