Speeding Up Your Windows 7/ Vista Computer

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Steve CDN

Steve CDN

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The Windows 7 built in feature called ReadyBoost is not particularly well documented, but can speed up your computer by using storage space on most USB flash drives and flash memory cards.

ReadyBoost can be turned on or off once it is activated so the storage device can be used for storage, if needed.

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 drive or card doesn't have enough available space for ReadyBoost, you'll see a message telling you to free some space on it. For best results, use a flash drive or flash memory card with at least double the amount of available space as the amount of memory (RAM) in your computer.

ReadyBoost is also accessible in Vista
 
You really want to speed up Window 7 get an SSD. Solid State Drive. A hard drive with no moving parts.

My laptop, which is a two year old $600 computer now boots from the power switch to the desktop in about 20 seconds. It shuts down in less than three seconds. Photoshop opens in less than 4 seconds. Transfering photos from the chip to the laptop is really fast. Everything is really fast.

But they are pricey. My 64 gig costs $125. I can easily get by on 64 gigs. Windows and my apps take less then 20 gigs and my library of music and photos is about 15 gigs. I still got 30 gigs free.
 
I've been messing with ReadyBoost in Win7 and honestly have seen almost no change in system speed. I'm using a class 6 SD card.
 
All the test reports I've seen have shown no perceptible performance improvement using ReadyBoost.  A better investment is to increase the RAM on the motherboard to 4GB (for 32 bit Windows) or more (for 64 bit Windows).
 
Ned said:
All the test reports I've seen have shown no perceptible performance improvement using ReadyBoost
Click to expand...

Is objective testing done at the processor level to determine the speed at which computations are executed or do tests reflect a subjective impression of how fast programs appear to perform as seen on the screen?

I activated ReadyBoost yesterday, not being familiar with it until I came across an article describing it.  Using an 8 GB flash memory stick, ReadyBost allocated 5GB for its use.  I notice the light of the memory stick flashing most of the time as I perform operations, indicating something is being written to it.

 
There have been objective tests (Tom's Hardware has some results) run that show a small increase in performance, but subjectively there was no difference.  Yes, data will be read and written to the flash drive, but the net effect is imperceptible.  And flash memory does have a finite limit on the number of write operations, so it will eventually be worn out.  Over time, error recovery will override any performance benefits.  As I said, adding RAM will give immediate benefits to most systems, especially if they're minimally configured for the Windows version.  RAM is still relatively inexpensive and much cheaper than flash drives.

And although flash memory is fast, in this application it's limited by the USB interface speed.
 
Ned said:
All the test reports I've seen have shown no perceptible performance improvement using ReadyBoost.  A better investment is to increase the RAM on the motherboard to 4GB (for 32 bit Windows) or more (for 64 bit Windows).
Click to expand...
And how does adding more storage space equate to faster speed? I have never gotten a speed increase from adding RAM unless you are very dramatically short of memory to begin with.
 
More RAM means more pages are stored in memory and less use of the disk based swap file.  For those that run multiple programs at the same time, or use memory intensive programs, like video editors and some image processing programs, maximizing RAM will make a definite performance improvement.

If all you run is your browser or an email program, then the minimum amount of RAM is sufficient, but for power users RAM is speed.
 
Ned said:
flash memory does have a finite limit on the number of write operations, so it will eventually be worn out. ......And although flash memory is fast, in this application it's limited by the USB interface speed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insights, Ned.  I was unaware of either of those facts.
 
Ned said:
More RAM means more pages are stored in memory and less use of the disk based swap file.  For those that run multiple programs at the same time, or use memory intensive programs, like video editors and some image processing programs, maximizing RAM will make a definite performance improvement.

If all you run is your browser or an email program, then the minimum amount of RAM is sufficient, but for power users RAM is speed.
Click to expand...

I sincerely doubt that one out of 1000 computer users every page to disk anymore. It takes boat load of pages to fill up even 2 gigs. And I really doubt more than one in 1000 are "power users".
 
No body is telling anyone to buy more RAM, just that it's a better investment than flash drives for Ready Boost.

Load up your typical set of applications and use the task manager to see how much memory is in use.  Right now on my system, Firefox alone is using over 666MB.  If I had just 2GB I would be paging to disk frequently with my normal application set, which is about 3 or 4 programs.
 
Ned said:
No body is telling anyone to buy more RAM, just that it's a better investment than flash drives for Ready Boost.

Load up your typical set of applications and use the task manager to see how much memory is in use.  Right now on my system, Firefox alone is using over 666MB.  If I had just 2GB I would be paging to disk frequently with my normal application set, which is about 3 or 4 programs.
Click to expand...

Yes you did tell people to buy more ram:

>A better investment is to increase the RAM on the motherboard to 4GB

I get irritated when I read that old urban myth that adding more RAM increases performance. It does not except for under very limited cases. Every computer salesman in the world tries to sell more RAM and computers with more RAM confidently stating that the machines with the most RAM runs the fastest.

I don't know what you mean by "loading up a typical set of applications". That is not something that most people do. It is extremely difficult for anyone but a power user to use up their memory.
 
Ned said:
More RAM means more pages are stored in memory and less use of the disk based swap file.  For those that run multiple programs at the same time, or use memory intensive programs, like video editors and some image processing programs, maximizing RAM will make a definite performance improvement.
Click to expand...

There is a huge flaw in your discussion. If you boot up any computer in the world it runs at X speed. If you start running programs it still runs at X speed. If you fill up the on board memory it will start paging to disk (your hard drive) and slow down your computer. It is now running at X - something speed. If you increase the amount of RAM you can get the computer back to running at X speed. But can add all the memory in the world and no computer on this earth will ever run at x + something speed. It is physically impossible.
 
No flaw, you have just stated what I stated.  When the computer starts paging to disk it runs slower, adding RAM will allow those programs to stay in memory and the paging is avoided, restoring the maximum speed to the computer.  What you're referring to as x+something is called overclocking and I never mentioned that.
 
Ned said:
No flaw, you have just stated what I stated.  When the computer starts paging to disk it runs slower, adding RAM will allow those programs to stay in memory and the paging is avoided, restoring the maximum speed to the computer.  What you're referring to as x+something is called overclocking and I never mentioned that.
Click to expand...

I am not talking about overclocking. I am talking about people claiming that you can increase the speed of your computer by adding more RAM. That is only possible under very special circumstances, when you start paging to disk. The title of the thread is Speeding up your computer. Your first reply was "no perceptible performance improvement using ReadyBoost.  A better investment is to increase the RAM on the motherboard to 4GB". That makes it sound like you are saying that anyone can add RAM to their computer and you will get a performance increase. And that is not true.
 
Do you really want your computer to run faster???

Its easy and its free.  Just go online & download Linux Ubuntu 10.4

Not only will your computer run faster, you wont need crap like anti virus to protect your system.

Been running it here for over 2 years (earlier versions of Linux) , and never had a virus or other problem.

Sometime the best things in life are free.  ;)

P.S.  If you download it & burn it to a cd, you can try it out without having to install anything.  That way if you don't like it, just pull out the disc and throw it away.  The downside to running this way, is when you turn off the machine you will lose anything you loaded as it is running from memory only.  I do recommend at least 512 megs of ram (which if you have windows you must have) in order for it to load properly
 
powderman said:
Do you really want your computer to run faster???

Its easy and its free.  Just go online & download Linux Ubuntu 10.4

Not only will your computer run faster, you wont need crap like anti virus to protect your system.
Click to expand...

It's easy????? I .have been hearing that line since about 1995

It may be free but my time certainly is worth too much to me to waste on a cult operating system. I have been using and loving Windows since 2.1 in 1987. All my Windows apps are paid for and I feel very comfortable with them. I see no reason to throw it all away and start over from scratch learning everything all over.

I have never used anti-virus or anti-malware of any kind. If you know how to use a computer they are totally unnecessary. I have never gotten a virus and I never will. It is not Windows that is insecure it is the person typing on the keyboard that is the weak link in the security chain.

And I have not met on Linux user yet that doesn't emulate Windows because they can't get a Linux version of the programs they use.

Less than 1% of all PCs are running Linux and there are lots and lots of reasons why.
 
The way I look at it is there is only 1 person in a 100 smart enough to not put up with Microsofts crap.
The average user wont know the difference (beside not having viruses, spending money on software and having a slow machine) from running windows.
But hey thats just me.  If you like windows so much, then don't complain about how slow your machine is.  If you indeed are running windows without anti virus your a braver soul than I am. You say you have money tied up in software.  With linux you wont have that problem as there are thousands of programs that are free.  An example is Windows Office. If you buy it, it can cost as much as $500.  Sun a well known computer software company has a package called Open Office.  It does 99 percent of what Office for windows will and it is free. As a matter of fact if you purchase a Linux magazine at a book store like Barnes & Noble, for $15 you will get a dvd of linux and plenty of free software like open office that you will then not need to spend time downloading.  So I guess all I can say is give it a try.  8)

 
While Linux is an option for some home users, it's not viable for most RVers as we use a number of programs that don't have equivalents for Linux.  Many of us use DeLorme products (Street Atlas, Topo) and the Trailer Life Directory program.  Many use Quicken for online financial management.  Yes, you can run Windows in a virtual machine under Linux, but you still need a Windows license and it's a complexity that most users won't want to deal with.

While I'm a big fan of Linux, this isn't the right forum to tout its features.
 
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