Very slow file open dialog/"Save As" on Windows 7

I was recently experiencing very long delays before the "File Open" dialog opened up whenever "Save As" was clicked from Word or Excel. The blue wheel was spinning and spinning for minutes, before the dialog allowed me to choose anything. Finally found out that it was all related to a recent installation of SAP Portal Drive Client on my Windows 7 x64 laptop. Removing this client solved the problem immediately. I will update this blog later when I find out what in the tool was causing such a horrible delay.