If you have found that your computer is running a little slower and you want to speed up games, videos and the Windows operating system itself, there could be a solution. Since Windows is able to access memory much faster than it can get things off the hard drive, recently used programs run more quickly than ones that you haven't touched in a while. Unfortunately, newer versions of Windows, including Vista, require a lot more memory than earlier ones.

It's possible to buy new memory just about everywhere, but there are some reasons this might not be the best solution. Inexperienced users may have trouble installing these cards and it's possible to run out of extra slots. The solution that can make things easier is your USB port, plug a flash drive into it and you will be able to add a little more to your system.

Using Ready Boost along with a USB flash drive allows you to easily and quickly add more memory to your computer, speeding things up for software and you're OS. It's just a matter of plugging in the drive, installing the program and adding the extra memory to your computer.

Make sure you have a flash drive and a computer capable of USB 2.0. Once you plug the drive into your computer, you will get an autoplay dialog box, including a selection for "Speed up my system". Turn on "Use this device" and you will get more memory! Try out your most resource heavy program, like a game or computer art program, to test the results. The flash drive will be used just like the RAM inside the computer, offering a boost in speed.

Ready Boost doesn't just work with USB drives, either, it will also work with SD cards and Compact Flash cards, such as the ones used in a digital camera. However, your computer must have a built in card slot to use these, external card readers won't work. In addition, you must have Windows Vista and a card that offers Ready Boost compatibility. Look on the packaging to find a Ready Boost logo.

Only one flash drive can be used per computer and there are size limitations, you can only use Ready Boost with memory devices between 256 Mb and 4 Gb in capacity. Larger or smaller drives don't work. The speed boost you will get depends on the capacity of the drive. Try using a USB flash drive with the same capacity as your computer's memory.

Therefore, a 1 Gb RAM computer should use a 1 Gb flash drive; smaller flash drives would significantly reduce the speed you'd get from using Ready Boost. It's also important to remember that you can't use this flash drive for file storage while it's being used by Ready Boost. You will have to change the settings under Properties, or reformat the drive if you want to do this.

For Vista computers that need a boost of speed, a USB flash drive and Ready Boost could be the solution. Remember to pay attention to the drive size and other factors and you will soon be surfing, gaming and working a whole lot faster.