An anonymous reader writes:
Trying to run Windows Vista on a PC without lots of memory or a hot graphics card can hardware can be an exercise in frustration, since Vista's performance is extremely hardware-dependent. In
ReadyBoost: Better Vista Performance In A Flash David Dejean talks about a trio of little-known features that rely on external USB flash drives to improve Vista's performance: ReadyBoost, which uses external flash devices to supplement system memory with a special cache; ReadyDrive, which takes advantage of new hybrid drives that combine conventional disk with flash; and ReadyBoot, which allows fast recovery from hibernation. Thumbdrives are going to be marketed to take advantage of these features. Could this be the boost Vista needs to overcome its need for excessively costly hardware?