The Windows Vista AutoPlay dialog gives you the choice of enabling the ReadyBoost function which we will see in a while. The USB stick also includes TrueCrypt, a software to encrypt your data with AES-256 encryption. TrueCrypt is free, open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Linux. Users who carry sensitive data will find it useful.

ReadyBoost provides disk caching to help improve system performance.From the ReadyBoost tab you can set the amount of memory allocated.

After enabling the ReadyBoost function, we ran several tests to see what kind of change we would see in our test system:

Without ReadyBoost

With ReadyBoost

The 4GB reserved by VISTA for ReadyBoost has improved the Drive Index for the main HDD, C:, while reducing the Random Access Time also. We saw a similar improvement in the Memory bandwidth (Buffered) tests with Sisoft Sandra 2007 XI SP2. However, the loading times for Windows were not improved. Microsoft doesn't suggest using more than 4GB for ReadyBoost.