Can a program really be boosting the performance of a system, like the stuff we see on the net, something like ram booster or ram optimizer, stuff like that...

Many of them don't work. Some do because the people who tried them had computers that weren't configured properly. For example, there are programs out there that try to speed up your internet connection. Computers come from the manufacturer with the intention that the user will use a 56k modem. If you use cable/dsl, these programs will make your connection faster. However, they do things to your computer that you can do yourself. for ram optimizers...I don't recommend it. Sure, they can clear your memory, but you don't notice any speed increase. Also, my computer will crash within 24 hours after I tell the program to optimize the memory. I guess it removed stuff from the memory, and later a program running in the background tried to access it in memory but couldn't find it (ie: antivirus, firewall, etc) Also, performance is never increased dramatically...sometimes it might be noticeable, but i think 10% is the usually performance expectancy. Download accelerators might be the only good thing...what they do is get the file you want, break it up into pieces, and download each piece in parallel (rather than trying to download the one file through one connection linearly).

Thanks for the answer David

I have to totaly disagree with dave about the ram "boosters".When you run games/apps,They take up a % of your ram.When you close out of or stop a game/app,thye will leave some "residue" info floting around in your ram.Windows itself is bad about this.There are 2 kinds.1 is a ram defragmenter,this is the best in my opinion.They constantly defragment your ram throwing out the usless "residue" and optimising the data thats needed at that time.You might not what to run these while plying games but for apps and internet they are great.the 2nd kind is what are usualy called "boosters" they will automaticly or manualy right all info in the ram at that time to the hard disk.Then put back the data being used buy what ever apps you are running at that time.my favorite of these is RAMBOOSTER.It can be set to automaticly run when ram gets at a certain point but not to go off when the processer is running at 50% or more so that it dont interupt a game.You should keep a copy of both and you will notice a big difference in your ps's performance after it has been on for some time.Especialy if you dont have much ram and even if you do.As far as internet boosters,they are a waist of time for 56k,but if your broadband of anytype find one for your connection and it might help a little.