I may be hijacking this thread now but I've got the exact same issue. Every time I launch Opera it hangs for 30 - 60 sec on the first page it's trying to open. After this it works fine. However, sometimes it crashes to desktop as I try to close a page / shut down the browser. There's definitely an issue or two as it comes to loading as well as leaving a web site.

Current specs

Version:36.0.2130.75 - Opera is up to date
Update stream: Stable
System: Windows Vista 64-bit (WoW64)

It's not a standalone installation since it's been upgraded several times (for several years). I might try a totally indepedent installation.

best regards,

Hans

I can certainly delete the shortcut to the v12.17 opera.exe and keep the "28" shortcut only. I'm just saying that this update is the first one that leaves a redundant opera.exe behind as a fully operational alternative. I guess I could delete the old opera.exe to clean up the opera program folder but I don't know whether there are more redundant files and subfolders. Since the "28" installer doesn't clean it up it might be better to make a new installation and then import bookmarks / preferences from my v12.17.

Adding two my post above--I do indeed have two browsers. The latest Opera update put a new opera.exe in a subfolder. Thus, it didn't overwrite my previous opera.exe. This makes the update a bit messy. I won't do a fresh install and lose my preferences and my bookmarks.

I'm a bit confused regarding the launcher versus the opera.exe. When I launch the browser using the shortcut to the opera.exe the browser looks like it did before. When I click the launcher icon I get a different look. This might be a different skin except for the fact that I get the prompt asking whether I want to use Opera as my standard browser when I switch between direct launch versus indirect launch. Thus, when I've confirmed that Opera (opera.exe) is my standard browser I get the same question again if I start up Opera by clicking the launcher shortcut and vice versa.