"Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)"

can you also do this with a 4gb sd card??

I found that equalising the Page file helps a lot as well, also if you have a second HDD in your case move the page file to its first partition

Tweak SATA disk performance

This speeds up the performance of your SATA hard disk drive by enhancing write caching >

1) Click on the Start Button and key in Device Manager and hit Enter 2) Expand Disk Drives 3) Right click on your HDD / HDDs and select Properties 4) On the Policies tab, check Enable advanced performance 5) Hit OK and close Device Manager.

MSCONFIG (in Vista)

Click on the Vista start icon in the bottom left corner of your screen, type MSCONFIG in the search box and then either press enter on your keyboard or double-click on the MSCONFIG program that appears in the search results, to prevent you from accidentally making changes that could destabilise your computer, Vista asks you for permission to continue. You may see a box asking you to key in your computer's administrator user name and password if you're already logged into Vista as an administrator, you may see a box asking you if you would like to continue Once you have successfully passed through Microsoft's User Account Control "if you use it" Vista will launch Microsoft's System Configuration Utility.

1) Click on the Startup tab, this takes you to a page with a list of "startup items." Startup items are programs that are automatically loaded every time you turn on your computer, some startup programs are absolutely necessary, others are simply a waste of RAM !. 2) Decide what you want to turn off and untick its box on the left 3) click Apply then OK.

In Windows Vista, all of Windows' essential programs are loaded through something called "Windows Services." This means that most of the startup items you see in Vista are completely optional and can be turned off, however, a good rule of thumb is to disable only those programs that you recognise and don't need to have running all the time. When in doubt, leave it on

Cat

Faster USB Disks

If you have your USB disk connected all the time you can make it faster >

1) Click Start 2) type Device Manager and click Device Manager link 3) expand the Disks entry 4) right click USB disk icon 5) select properties and on the Policies tab tick "Optimise Performance" 6) click OK.

Cat

Fine tune visual performance options

With the default Category Control Panel >

1) Click start and select Control Panel 2) select System and Maintenance 3) Click Performance Information and Tools 4) select Adjust visual effects (on the left side) and the Continue button (if UAC is active) 5) select "Adjust for best performance." 6) Click OK.

Cat

Remove Remote Assistance and ensure Remote Desktop is disabled

Note Remote Desktop is not available on Vista Home / Home Premium, so the option will not be there.

With the default Category Control Panel >

1) Click start and select Control Panel 2) select System and Maintenance 3) select System and Remote settings (on the left side) 4) Click the Continue button (if UAC is active) 5) Uncheck "Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer " option - Ensure "Don't allow connections to this computer" option is checked 6) Click OK.


Cat

Disable Sidebar

The new Windows Vista Sidebar uses between 12MB to 20MB of RAM with the default 3 Gadgets and no news headline feed >

1) Locate the Windows Sidebar icon in the System Tray (lower right, near the clock display) 2) Show hidden icons if it is not displayed 3) Right click the icon to bring up the context menu 4) Select Properties 5) Uncheck Start Sidebar when Windows starts 6) Click OK


Cat