How to optimize and speed up Windows Vista with a USB flash thumb drive:

If you’ve got a spare USB drive laying around, hold onto it till you start running Windows Vista. Using Vista’s new ReadyBoost feature, a spare USB 2.0 key with enough space can speed up the OS performance.

Plug in your drive and choose “Speed up my system” from the AutoPlay menu to enable ReadyBoost, which uses some fancy-pants disk-caching to make Windows a bit snappier. Still looking to unload a few extra drives? The hardware experts at Gizmodo have some links to donate ‘em too.
Save That Flash Drive: Vista Speedup or Tax-Deductable Gift [Gizmodo]

By: Gina Trapani [Lifehacker]