Remember When Flash Drives Were Going To Make Your PC Faster?
The article discusses the legacy of Microsoft's ReadyBoost technology introduced with Windows Vista in 2006. ReadyBoost aimed to enhance PC performance by using USB flash drives as a cache for faster data access. Despite its innovative concept, the technology did not gain widespread adoption and was ultimately seen as a gimmick.
- ▪ReadyBoost was designed to use flash storage as a cache to speed up random disk reads.
- ▪It required USB flash drives or removable media with specific speed and capacity criteria.
- ▪The technology was most effective under high disk use and low memory conditions.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Remember When Flash Drives Were Going To Make Your PC Faster? No comments by: Zoe Skyforest May 26, 2026 Title: Copy Short Link: Copy The 2000s was a decade of great change in the computer industry. The world had grown accustomed to corruptible floppy disks, blue screens of death, and achingly slow load times. In a few short years, all of that would change, as USB drives, better operating systems, and faster processors brought forth a new age of stability and speed. Amidst this era of upheaval, Microsoft introduced a new technology. It was intended to increase performance on the cheap to a new generation of machines, but it would turn out to be little more than a gimmick that never really caught on. Let’s explore the easily-forgotten legacy of ReadyBoost.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Hackaday.
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