Windows Vista allows you to use removable flash memory as a high-speed data cache. Depending on your system and the amount of available resources, using a flash memory device in this manner can significantly speed up your system by reducing the number of disk accesses that are made. In Vista, they refer to this feature as ReadyBoost. Here's how you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system.

First, insert a flash memory device. Windows requires that the device contains at least 512 MB. But flash memory is so cheap, you'll probably want to use something along the lines of 2GB. The more the better.

If the device has not been used before, Windows will initialize the device. Just follow the steps and this will happen automatically.

Once the flash memory is inserted and recognized, open Windows Explorer and navigate to the flash drive. Right click on the drive and select Properties.

When the properties dialog box is displayed, select the ReadyBoost tab. On the ReadyBoost tab, select the "Use this device option". You can then optionally tell Windows how much memory to allocate to ReadyBoost.

Once you are using a flash memory stick for ReadyBoost, you can still remove it. You'll lose system performance, but there will be no data loss. In addition, the data that is stored on the flash memory device is encrypted, so you don't have to worry about someone stealing your removable device and making off with your personal information.