Windows Vista Too Slow? ReadyBoost Can Help

Have a Windows Vista preloaded on your laptop, but the system is too slow? If you have Windows ReadyBoost-capable USB flash memory, you can speed up your PC in just a few steps.

The insufficient notebook’s and desktop PC’s main memory can cause operating system to run slow on these machines. The new feature in Windows Vista, called Windows ReadyBoost technology, lets users utilize a removable flash memory device, such as a USB thumb memory drive, to make computer more responsive. According to Microsoft, ReadyBoost can speed up the computer since it can retrieve data kept on the flash memory more quickly than it can retrieve data kept on the hard disk.

But, not all USB memory sticks found on the market are capable of running ReadyBoost feature. You must have USB memory device with 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes.

If you are not sure which drives fulfill this request, you can check the unofficial list of ReadyBoost-compatible memory devices.

For using ReadyBoost under Windows Vista, you need to insert USB memory stick into USB port first. An AutoPlay window should appear with “Speed up my system” option at the bottom of the same window. Under the ReadyBoost tab, select “Use this device”, and then set the amount of space to reserve for this feature.

If your USB stick/thumb drive doesn’t support ReadyBoost, under the ReadyBoost tab you will see the message “This device does not have the required performance…”.

The ReadyBoost can be used to help your PC running Vista easier, but you should take the computer vendor’s advices suggesting use of at least 1GB of main memory with Microsoft’s new operating system.

Resources: Window Vista Performance | Tom Archer’s Blog

[…] The Lexar ExpressCard SSD, which comes with 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities, is also Windows Vista ReadyBoost compatible. […]

ahaha..! this is a joke indeed..in the next OS following Vista we might even need to have a couple of satellites around us to transmit better bandwidth!!
microsoft is ridiculous..there is no point to a 40 million line operating system that achieves such a slow down and then requires you to pay extra $$$’s just to make it behave as intended..!!! joke joke joke..and furthermore..DUAL Core systems - or even QUAD now that they are available will not run the OS better! there are no multithreading operations for 90% of the time..therefore you are running this OS at 90% of the time at speeds of 1.6ghz - 2.0 ghz and so on…cheap and lame marketing decisions…intel, amd and microsoft are laughing all the way to the bank to grab our money…!!!!