Big boost

Q.

I have heard about an application which allows you to multiply the installed system memory (RAM) on any computer. Is this true and is there a download link to it? My computer has a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 processor with 256 megabytes of RAM and Windows XP SP2.

A.

Since there exists no such application that increases a system's physical memory, we presume you're referring to Windows Vista's ReadyBoost feature. Basically, ReadyBoost allows you to install flash memory, such as that on USB flash drives or a secure digital (SD) memory card, into your machine and have Vista use it as physical memory. This dramatically improves system performance and overall responsiveness without having to add any additional RAM modules to your computer. Unfortunately, this feature is exclusive to Windows Vista. The commercial eBoostr by FirmTools (www.eboostr.com) offers the same function on Windows XP systems as ReadyBoost does for Vista machines. Note that while this will work wonders on systems with low on-board RAM running taxing programs, it will not have much of an effect on computers with two gigabytes, or more, of installed memory with few applications open in the background.

For a cheaper alternative, and if your system's hard drive has a fairly large storage capacity, a virtual memory manager can also help increase the system's performance. Virtual memory is space set aside on an existing hard drive that is used as a proxy for additional main memory. RamBooster is an excellent program that efficiently manages main memory as well as virtual memory without requiring the user to purchase additional hardware. For a more detailed review, visit Download.com and search RamBooster 2.