Readyboost - Any USB 2.0 Drives Hack 20/10/07

1. Setup

http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/...1.jpg?maxw=400

First things first. Plug the device in. Ignore AutoPlay if you have the enabled, and go to Computer in the start menu. When it pops up, right-click the USB stick and select properties.
2. Disable the stick

http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/...2.jpg?maxw=400

Click on the Readyboost tab on the properties menu and check Do not restest this device. Click okay and unplug the stick from your computer.
3. Edit the registry!

http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/...3.jpg?maxw=400

Woah! Don't panic, it's not as frightening as it sounds. Firstly, you need to open regedit, by opening the start menu and typing regedit, then enter. The registry window should load up.
Using the left-hand pane, work your way through the following folders: HKLM (Local Machine) -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows NT -> CurrentVersion -> EMDgmt. You'll have a list of USB devices the computer has encountered, one of which should be your USB stick. Click on it.
Here there's a few details you need to edit. Double click on Device Status and change the value to 2, then ok. Do the same for ReadSpeedKBs and WriteSpeedKBs, changing their values to both 1000. Exit the regedit and breathe a sigh of relief.
4. And back in again

http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/...4.jpg?maxw=400

Now all that's left to do is put the stick back in and once again go to the device properties (Computer > Right-click on drive). If you look under the Readyboost Tab, you'll be able to now select Use this device. Success! Now enjoy your faster PC.

anyone try this with with a memory card yet? could be good for people running vista on laptops who don't want a flash drive protruding from their machine

yeah biggy tried it with a memory card but i dont think he noticed any diff

but it was goin through a card reader, may be diff if you have mem card slots actually in the pc and not via USB, or i could just be talkin total bollox as usual

tried a 1gb sd card in my dell laptop (with built in card reader)

it was a kingston elite 1gb so no hack needed,

vista picked it up straight away and using it for readyboost :)

That's great! You can actually notice the change.

Just tried this with my 2gb USB stick, it's like a whippet after allocating the full key to performance boosting. :D Thanks for the how-to Rap. ;)

Well I might have a 2GB USB2 wafer drive coming to me today so shall try it then! Wasn't aware what this speedboost did until I just went on the M$ site!

Cheers rap.

EDIT: Had to hack it but it worked and now to see if speed is any different. Got 2GB RAM anyway so must need some big processes to test. I had 2 entries I altered in regedit, one had write speed and read speed as 0, the other as stuff like 5bb :blink:

Bloody hell, I know I'm well late, this is ace though! (Not that I need a faster machine- I want rid of vista like yesterday!)

i know this may be a bit vague but how can i find out which one i should go for? get into regedit ok and when it comes to choosing my mem stick it seems my computer has had more sticks than jenna jameson has had dick.
i dont wanna be choosing the wrong one but they all seem to have names like 0000023/44563 o9r summat!! how can i find which was the last stick that was in(obviously the one i want to use).
TIA guys

I deleted the entire list, then upon re-inserting my 4gb kingston key a new entry was created and I used that.
Also I found if you rename your key another entry is created, which then requires this change to allow readyboast again..

wow - love that. i bought a usb drive esp for using on vista and was cheesed off that it wouldnt work as it wasnt fast enough

thanks again!!!! :)