Adding RAM isn’t brain surgery. Nor is it outrageously expensive, but installation is best left to an expert. If you are a D I Y type, you can search Google for ‘Installing more RAM’.

Give Vista a boost

With a flash memory device — a USB flash drive, CompactFlash or SD card — of at least 256 MB, you can make the PC use data faster. Plugged into a USB port or media reader, the memory device serves as an additional memory cache. (The more memory the better, up to 4 GB.) After the device is inserted, Vista asks you if you want to use it to improve performance. You can choose to allocate part of the card or drive’s memory to what Microsoft calls ReadyBoost and use the remainder to store files.

Use only what you need

You may think you have only the Firefox browser running, but Vista starts a host of programs every time you start it. And they all use the computer’s memory.

Go to Control Panel. Click Uninstall a Program and in the Tasks pane on the left, click Turn Windows Features On or Off. You should see a checklist of the programs. Hover the cursor over each entry and a pop-up box tries to explain what it is. Uncheck the ones you do not need. This does not remove them from your PC; it just turns them off.

Make Vista uglier

Vista makes your PC’s desktop prettier, but uses a lot of memory to throw widgets on the side of the screen and make icons transparent. Go back to Control Panel, this time to Personalisation. Disable the transparency feature by removing the checkmark on Enable Transparency. Click the Performance and System Tools tab, and click Adjust Visual Effects. Click Adjust For Best Performance.

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