Just noticed something interesting (to me anyway) my system shows a 46% use of RAM. When I insert a 2gig memory stick configured to use ReadyBoost the usage jumps to 61%. On removal it reverts to 56%. Am I missing something here... shouldn't ReadyBoost be providing a cache of sorts to decrease RAM usage? Once I thought I was wrong, now I'm not so sure!

ReadyBoost is not intended to decrease RAM usage. Rather it is intended to speed up your computer by speeding up random disk reads. See following for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyB... http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Wi...

I don't really see a problem with what you described. How Vista manages memory is far more intelligent & efficient than how XP & all other Windows OS' pre-Vista managed memory. Furthermore, why deploy ReadyBoost if you really don't want to see the feature utilized - huh? If your thumb drive meets the minimum requirement for ReadyBoost -- USB 2.0 compliant; capacity is at least 64 MB & no larger than 4 GB & capable of 3.5 MB/s read speeds for 4 kB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s write speeds for 512 kB random writes spread uniformly across the device. -- which I like to assume it does: the fact that you are seeing your usage jump up when the thumb is in & back down when removed is evidence of optimal ReadyBoost performance. For you to notice that much performance disparity, your thumb drive typically needs to be about 2x the amount of physical RAM present on your system; which was the case here as well. On the other hand, if your system was already eqipped with say 2GB of RAM & you decide to speed up disk cache access using a 4GB thumb drive via ReadyBoost .... you shouldn't expect to see that much difference, this is because the OS' Super-Fetch routine is generally expected to be fully optimized at that point. http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01...

Thanks for the links... makes interesting reading. I'm under no illusions regarding ReadyBoost... I just wondered why the RAM usage went up. Regards Once I thought I was wrong, now I'm not so sure!