Activate ReadyBoost in Windows Vista

Readyboost is a new disk caching technique in Windows Vista which uses flash memory from flash devices to boost system performance. Caching system resources for small, random I/Os in flash ram is faster than caching them on one of your hard drives which speeds up certain disk reads by the factor 8-10.

It is pretty easy to enable Readyboost in Vista. Plug in your usb stick or flash device and wait for the autostart menu. Select Speed up my System using Windows Readyboost from the menu. Windows Vista will perform some tests and display information if the device is not compatible with Readyboost. After that is done Readyboost is activated and Windows Vista uses the additional free space to speed up some disk reads.

The devices have to meet some requirements like having a size between 256 MB and 4 GB. Other requirements are USB 2.0 support, at least 64 Mb of free space and 3.5 MB/s read speeds for 4 kB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s write speeds for 512 kB random writes spread uniformly across the device.

This is a great way to improve performance without adding new ram to the system. It is definitely not the best way to improve the performance of Vista but a good method to achieve better results fast. If you have the choice to buy more ram do that, if you can’t do that use the flash device instead.

Tom Archer from Microsoft answers some of the most common questions about Readyboost in a blog post.

• Reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Delicious
• Digg
• Twitter

Tags: activate readyboost, readyboost, vista ram, windows-vista
Categories: Operating Systems, Windows

Read Related Posts

1. Use any USB 2.0 Device for Readyboost in Vista
2. Windows Readyboost Monitor
3. Readyboost Monitor
4. Speed up Hard Drives under Windows Vista
5. Speed Up Windows Vista Reinstallation
6. WPF Performance Fix for Windows Vista and XP
7. 10 Simple Ways to Speed up Windows Vista
8. The complete guide to optimizing Windows XP

6 Responses to “Activate ReadyBoost in Windows Vista”

1. Everton Blair says:

   January 5, 2007 at 11:48 am

   What speed increases did you get on your Vista system?

   Reply
2. Jaap says:

   January 11, 2007 at 8:21 pm

   I did a comparitive review of Readyboost on Vista. The results might surprise you.

   Reply
3. Jaap says:

   January 11, 2007 at 8:22 pm

   http://techrumor.blogspot.com/2007/01/readyboost-benchmark.html

   Reply
4. kranthi says:

   April 24, 2007 at 6:25 pm

   hi,

   i have installed windows vista beta version on my pc. after 3 months it is asking me to activate it. can me tell how to activate with out paying. or tell me how to uninstall windows vista as i am having two operating systems on same computer. i,e windows xp and windows vista.

   Bye.
   Kranthi.

   Reply
5. irmashida says:

   February 10, 2008 at 7:18 am

   my memory stick(sony produo) 2gig is not compatible for vista ready . is there something i can do to solve it?

   Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

1. Connected Internet says:

   January 15, 2007 at 11:51 pm

   Getting Ready For Vista – Does ReadyBoost Work?

   I’m almost ready for upgrading to Vista.  My new mobo arrives tomorrow and I was just about to buy some flash memory to take advantage of ReadyBoost.  If you haven’t come across Vista ReadyBoost, gHacks explains it best:
   ReadyBoost is a n…

   Reply