How to speed up Windows XP Pro SP3 with USB drives

[Andrzejewski]

I heard on some site that it is possible to boost the performance of Windows XP or Vista through a flash usb drive. I am having a 1GB usb with me and if I can use this to boost up the performance then it is better. My system is Windows XP with 512MB RAM. It is a bit slow in performance. It takes a bit more time to load up the email client or to simply surf the webpage. How to make this a bit faster.

[Oshea]

You need more ram instead of using the flash drive. What you had heard was about page file which is already conifgured to use your empty hard drive space. You can adjust that, but it is not going to give a better output. As you said you have only 512MB ram add atleast a 2GB ram to get better performance. You can boost the same by cleaning up your disk space. You can run disk cleaner to wipe out the temporary folder making your system to performance a bit more better. Also check in Task Manager in Performance the amount of RAM and CPU used. If it is high then go on Processes to see which application is using the same. Remove it.

[DesTiny!]

The feature that you are talking about is called as Ready Boost and it is not available for Windows XP. It only works in Windows 7. Readboost allows you to use your usb as physical ram to carry out resource intensive process. There is no way you can add up readyboost in XP as it is not designed to work with that. To get better output from ReadyBoost you need a additional hard drive. You can assign a prescribed amount of size to work with ReadyBoost. It improves the performance to some extent only. For better output you need more ram and a better processor to perform complex operation within seconds. If you find your system too weak try to upgrade that.

[Jacob.M]

I am using Windows XP and was expecting to find some software that can enable ReadyBoost in my system. That was really very sad to found that this does not work in XP. I have two 1GB usb drive which are not used much. I hope this can be used to make the XP perform more better. I cannot upgrade as my system is very old and it will cost me high to buy new hardware on the same. Still I am curious to know that there is someway I can try this usb to speed up windows. My pc works fine, but I am looking for a bit more speed. Some games that I play does not perform well. I had tested ReadyBoost in Vista, it works quiet fine. I had done with cleaning my temp folder, that did not helped much.

[Diggs]

I have some solutions that can help you out. There is a software available for Windows XP. One of them is eBoostr.I do not know that it is available in your region or not but I am using this on my Windows XP system. The expectation from ReadyBoost is too high. I had upgraded my system recently to Vista and using the same. Whenever I feel that the system needs more ram it utilizes empty space of my hard drive partition giving the boost to application launch. For XP I will recommend you to use more ram which will be better. A flash drive is just temporary solution while compared to that if you install a RAM then it is far more better.

[Illeana]

There is a tool like ReadyBoost. I had used that but it is really useless. There is no way you can get ReadyBoost work in Windows XP. I had purchased that software and wasted my money. I will not recommend you to buy any of those tools. When I had installed I hope that it will use my USB as additional memory. Also when there is a requirement in using ReadyBoost. There are two kind of usb. Once come with ReadyBoost support and one not. So you need to buy which supports it or else it will not work.

[Eithne]

You can play with PageFile in Windows XP. That is the only way by which you can get a bit more performance. If you are using a a nice amount of resource intensive application then you can go with modification of page file. You must check one thing. To make changes or increase the page file you need 2GB RAM atleast or else this does not work. I had created a separate partition in my computer to increase the page file. It is your system virtual ram which consumes around 10 to 20% of your hard drive partition.

[Han$naH]

PageFile helps the system to carry on resource intensive work if your RAM is completely occupied. The more RAM your system high the more less PageFile is required. As mentioned above it is the system virtual ram, and it puts a bit pressure your hard drive also. There is a small free tool called as Pagefilemon which can be used to configure the pagefile usage as per your need. You can increase or decrease the same as per your need. Keep a eye on PageFile usage. If it rises then it means your system is low on RAM or the existing process more system resource. You can then make changes and modify the same using the freeware utility. There are number of utilities available that can tell you about PageFile usage. You can try them to find your system pagefile requirement. It will help you to judge how much space to be allocated for the usage.

[Toby-Martin]

Virtual RAM or ReadBoost is only applicable for some applications which needs more system power. Windows keeps on slowing down as time goes on. To make your system performance at prescribed level you must keep on cleaning Windows as time goes on. Like getting rid from unwanted applications or simply keeping your registry more cleaner. There are number of tune up tools available that can do the job. There also some apps which keeps on filling your systems temp folder. They are not automatically deleted. Due to which a number of disc activity is created. So adding a second drive is not at all bad. This will give you a bit boost in performance. I had configured PageFile to use a empty partition. Also defrag your hard drive at time interval to organize the data more properly.

[Abdulmajid]

Task Manager is not capable of giving the actual Page File usage. I had used this a number of time to find the right amount of PageFile I can assign. Windows XP usage can be changes as time goes on. Due to new applications, updates, etc the Page File usage can rise. If you need to measure the minimum amount of PageFile you will have to find a third party software that can do this. PageFile works more better if fragmentation is performed timely. You can configure PageFile on Maximum to ensure better performance.

[GARTH]

I am too waiting to find some answer which can help me to find a ReadyBoost similar type software for Windows XP. There is no third party app available which can do this. I had seen similar discussion on number of forums, but not found any related application that can help me to find the right answer for the same.

[Taidje]

According to me page file fragmentation does not put any impact on the system performance unless it is too large. Windows XP works fine if you do not overload your system with data and applications. A prescribed amount of ram is utilized by various services of OS and antivirus. The remaining is left for the system to perform. If a system reaches almost near to its existing capacity then the performance is hampered. You can defrag the page file through Disk Deframentation. You just need to disable that before framentation that's all. A detailed report is generated at the end which will show the number of fragments in PageFile.

[LeonL]

To speed your system I can provide you some options. But from your end you must check that you have adequate ram. Disable useless stuff from startup and msconfig. Your hardware is directly responsible for your systems performance. So to get more output you need to get some better ram support.

Hardware

1. Bios Update : This is the first thing you can try out. This will boost your boot time and also help the system to initialize hardware in more better way. Bios update is easy in many system. You just need to visit official site and locate the fresh bios version. You can use a external usb drive to run the update process.
2. Disable not required hardware : In bios you can locate a number of things which are never used. You can disable them one by one so that nothing related to that is loaded in the OS. One of them is extra serious ports. If you are not using them just disable that. You can check your motherboard manual for more detail.
3. ThermalPaste : There is a component which is used between your cpu and cpu fan. This called as thermal paste which you must change quarterly. This paste does not remain for longer but it offers more heat removal from your cpu.
4. RAM : Physical memory is the only powerful source of hardware that can offer you better output. The more lower it is the more problem your system gives. Check what is your ram specs. DDR2 RAM are better compared to other. You can find that in your hardware specs. New RAM provides more performance.
5. Hard Drive : Internal Hard drive if marked as Green gives more stability and low power usage. But the issue with this drives is that they work very slowly. They reduce system performance. You can try SSD as much faster but costly alternative. SSD's are a kind of good alternative for laptops.
6. CPU : Using a outdated process will give you poor performance only. The larger the cpu cache the more app boost you will get. Dual core system are capable of handling multitasking support and high performance.
7. GPU : A video card is capable of giving you more option in dealing with graphic memory indirectly boosting the performance of video games and multimedia files.

Software

1. Disk Defragmentation: Use them to keep your data and application performance more cleaner. There are third party tools also which provides you option for better fragementation.
2. Driver Update : Get fresh drivers always. Download all latest drivers needed. This will improve the system performance to great extent. Also check that you have latest version of Windows Installer, Directx, Windows Scripting host, Dot net, etc. This can be downloaded from Windows Updates.

[SMichael]

I found the solution of SSD a bit beneficial. Butthe issue with this drives is that they do not offer you higher storage space. SSD have great data transfer rates. The configuration is also not so complicated here. I am looking for a reliable 80GB SSD that I can go for. PageFile is just small utility that cannot offer you a much higher output.

[FRIESEN]

I got my system screwed up due to software's. I keep on installing new software and remove them. This creates lots of activity and loaded by temp folder with many missing keys in the registry which indirectly made XP more slower. I had defrag the system, run disk cleanup but still the system is not working as expected. I will advice not to add more programs. Install only when it is needed. To speed you need to work a lot. Format your system and install programs only needed from scratch. That is the best way only.