Since the Vista system, Microsoft functions have directly put the possibility of "U disk system acceleration" into our minds. From then on, every time we insert a U disk, the system will automatically ask you whether you need to enable U disk system acceleration. Even for the current Win8 system, Microsoft still follows previous precedents. So, can a USB flash drive really accelerate our Win7/Win8 system? Have you ever understood this aspect? Let’s discuss it together today!

How USB acceleration works

USB flash drive assists in working with SuperFetch (super pre-reading). SuperFetch technology is also a new technology introduced when Vista was launched. Based on the user's usage habits, the system will automatically record the occurrence and end times of frequent operations, as well as the details of the front-end and background software running at that time. Then when there is free space in the memory, it will automatically convert the swap file stored on the hard disk into a memory page in advance, so that the startup speed of the programs that the user often runs can be accelerated.

The central idea of ​​SuperFetch technology is: "Excessive free memory space is a waste." Indeed, if an operating system always retains too much spare physical memory and consumes power, but cannot use the excess memory space to improve system performance, why not make better use of the excess memory space? Using these excess physical memories as cache is the essence of SuperFetch technology. It is precisely because of this memory-based caching strategy that Vista is hungry for memory capacity!

SuperFetch generally uses the computer's memory, which caches files in RAM. SuperFetch can also utilize the storage space of a USB flash drive. In fact, this is what we call USB flash drive system acceleration. When you connect the USB flash drive to your computer and enable the USB flash drive system acceleration function, the system will store SuperFetch data into your USB flash drive and free up system memory. Reading tedious small files from a USB flash drive is faster than reading from the hard disk, so in theory, this can improve the performance of your system.

Why U disk system acceleration may not be suitable for your computer

So far, we have only seen the advantages of U disk system acceleration. However, one drawback of U disk is that USB storage speed is definitely slower than RAM. SuperFetch data is definitely better when stored on the hard disk. Therefore, U disk system acceleration is most effective only when you have insufficient RAM space. If your RAM space is large enough, then USB system acceleration is obviously meaningless.

U disk system acceleration is ideal when there is insufficient RAM space. When Vista was first released, the official test used 512MB of RAM, coupled with the use of U disk system acceleration technology, the effect was very good. But now, the computers everyone uses usually have several gigabytes of RAM. When it comes to improving computer performance, adding additional RAM is always feasible.

If the memory is already under pressure when your computer is running, it is best to replace or add additional memory modules to solve the problem.

Under what circumstances is the U disk system acceleration effect most significant?

I really don’t want to waste money on buying a memory stick, and the system memory is only 512MB or 1GB and you happen to have a free U disk to use. If the reading speed of your USB flash drive is relatively slow, it is recommended that you do not use it.

Okay, after seeing this, I believe everyone has their own answer in their own minds as to whether the U disk system acceleration function can really significantly speed up the running speed of Windows. No matter how powerful the function is, the one that suits you is the most correct, what do you think?