UPDATE (Nov 2014): Given how many hits this and the Speeding up Visual Studio post are generating, I have to warn you that VS 2010 is seriously old. With the new Visual Studio version you can still compile for XP and there is no point in continuing to use VS 2010 anymore, unless you are already using it — and pushing a deadline. Please read the last section of this post to find the links to the free and commercial version of VS.

(Jan 2011) : Awe sh*t! After 2 months of active use I can say for sure, Visual Studio has some serious problems with speed. I didn’t have the IDE crash on me, but it’s just too slow for any large project. Tried everything possible, cleaned out the cache, recreated the intellisense files but the program still keeps slowing down for no apparent reason. It’s really annoying when the program suddenly gets into a heavy disk access mode, to the point where even typing becomes impossible. I have racked my brains and fiddled with every possible tweak I could find on the web without success. Since our entire project is now moved over to VS 10 it’s too late to turn back now 🙁 !!

UPDATE:  I finally managed to fix Visual Studio 10. Please read the post Speeding up Visual Studio.

Update (Not really): Neither me nor most programmers I know who are using VS 10 could solve this issue satisfactorily. I would recommend moving projects to Visual Studio 2012. It is much better and more stable than VS 2010. It’s been out for a while now and there’s no point in continuing with VS 2010 that clearly has some issues with speed and disk access.

Visual Studio 2012 : http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads
Visual Studio 2012 Express : http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-products

It’s time to move on to the latest version of Visual Studio or if you are an Indie/Hobbyist then to the free Visual Studio Community Edition.