ReadyBoost – Windows Vista

Now for the best news that you have ever heard… all of your future memory upgrades may no longer be necessary. That’s right! It’s true that Windows Vista is a bit of a memory hog, but there is now a quick and easy solution to adding additional memory.

The developers at Microsoft knew they needed to manage memory better so they have upgraded a process called SuperFetch. SuperFetch monitors your program usage and preloads the programs you typically use into the virtual memory. In other words as you use your computer the system is looking at your usage and deciding for you what programs it thinks you will use and gets  these ready to go. Also SuperFetch takes mundane tasks like disk defrag as runs them as a low priority so you maximize your computer’s memory all day long.

SuperFetch also recognizes when a USB flash memory device is plugged into a port. (It will recognize these three memory types: USB 2.0 drive, SD card, CompactFlash) After you plug in the USB flash memory the Windows AutoPlay box will pop up. This pop up now gives you another choice, besides just opening the folder, to “Speed up my system” using ReadyBoost.

Here is how your USB flash memory speeds up your system once you have selected it for the ReadyBoost service. SuperFetch needs virtual memory to store stuff that you use again and again. We call this caching. To cache is to hoard or stockpile. So ReadyBoost is using your USB flash memory to store your files that you use during your daily routine.

Now if your system wasn’t using ReadyBoost it would have to use your hard drive to act as virtual memory. That’s why sometimes it looks like your hard drive light never goes out. The hard drive is really being worked to death. ReadyBoost working with SuperFetch just stores the cache files on the USB flash memory instead of your hard drive.

Now this really is actual information being stored on that little USB drive that could be lost. Luckily Microsoft already assumed that you will lose this drive eventually so, they store all of that cached data in an AES-128 encrypted format (Advanced Encryption Standard). If you lose the drive it would take an expert or at least an exceptional geek to see what you have stored on the flash memory.

What got me really interested in this topic is that the first three times I tried to speed up my system it never worked. The AutoPlay box and the Property boxes popped up properly but when I “tested” the USB device they all failed the test. I couldn’t figure out why so I started investigating. What I did find out is that not all 2.0 compliant USB flash memory devices are the same. This appears to be the problem: some USB flash memory drives read/write at slower speeds than others. ReadyBoost has some specific operating speeds that it is looking for, so if your test fails this is probably the problem. There is nothing you can do about it except buy a better 2.0 complaint drive. Make sure that the USB flash memory drive you purchase says it is ReadyBoost compliant.

So the bottom line is to speed up your Windows Vista system just plug in a ReadyBoost compliant USB Flash Drive and in about 2 seconds you will be ready to go. This is a whole lot easier than cracking open the laptop and then adding memory.

I used several websites to compile this article. For a detailed quick overview of technical terms, and drive speeds needed I recommend the Wikipedia article located here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost