If you ever used ReadyBoost in Windows Vista you would probably know that it didn’t make much difference. Using ReadyBoost in Windows 7 is different, it actually works. If you don’t know what ReadyBoost is I will try to explain.

ReadyBoost can speed up your computer by using storage space on most USB flash drives and flash memory cards. Its almost like adding more memory to your computer, but with two main differences:

• USB Flash Drives tend to be cheaper to buy than memory.
• USB Flash Drives have a slower read/write speed than memory.

So basically its cheaper to use ReadyBoost than to buy more memory for your computer, but on the down side using a Flash Drive means you wont have the same performance increase.

When you plug a ReadyBoost-compatible storage device into your computer, the AutoPlay dialog box offers you the option to speed up your PC using ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can choose how much memory on the device to use for this purpose.

All I have done is purchased two cheap USB pen drives from ebay and plugged them into the back of my computer (out of site out of mind) and then used the full capacity of each drive for ReadyBoost.

If you do not get the AutoPlay dialog box up when you plug your USB Flash Drive in you can access ReadyBoost by going to:

Computer > Right Click on USB Flash Drive > Click Properties > Click the ReadyBoost Tab

You will then be greeted with the following screen:

You then simply click the “Use the device” option and select how much space on the USB Flash Drive you want to use. I simply select the maximum space available.

When you set up a device to work with ReadyBoost, Windows shows you how much space it recommends you allow it to use for optimal performance. For ReadyBoost to effectively speed up your computer, the flash drive or memory card should have at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of available space. If your device does not have enough available space for ReadyBoost, you’ll see a message telling you to free some space on the device if you want to use it to speed up your system.

ReadyBoost Notes:

• If your computer has a hard disk that uses solid-state drive (SSD) technology, you may not see an option to speed up your computer with ReadyBoost when you plug in a USB flash drive or flash memory card. This is because some SSD drives are so fast they’re unlikely to benefit from ReadyBoost.
• In some situations, you might not be able to use all of the memory on your device to speed up your computer. For example, some flash memory devices contain both slow and fast flash memory, but ReadyBoost can only use fast flash memory to speed up your computer.

If you have any experience using ReadyBoost on Windows 7 please let us know. Also if you are trying it for the first time let us know what you think.