If you're one of the many who are complaining about slowness in Vista, have you tried its ReadyBoost feature? This feature effectively caches often-used areas in-memory to exceptionally high-speed solid state memory like USB memory sticks. By moving some of these random reads to a fast location, this has the effect of significantly speeding some operations in Vista.

How do you use it? Just insert a USB or other kind of memory stick into your computer. If it meets the right minimum requirements, the OS will allow it to be used for ReadyBoost.

The hard part is in finding the right kinds of solid state memory that works. Those cheap USB sticks you get for free from vendors likely aren't going to work. If you've ever wondered why some sticks are much, much cheaper than others, it usually relates to their speed.

Find out which sticks are supported at this web site: http://www.grantgibson.co.uk/misc/readyboost/.

Get the exact step-by-step to use it here: http://cybernetnews.com/2007/04/26/cybernotes-use-any-usb-drive-or-memory-card-with-readyboost-on-vista/

If you have made use of ReadyBoost, let us know your experience. I think we're all curious to hear how well this improves your Vista experience.