PC Hints and Tips

Vista can transform any spare USB flash drive or SD card into an additional memory cache. To use the ReadyBoost feature, simply plug the drive into a spare USB port (or insert your card into the slot) and when AutoPlay kicks in, select Speed Up My System. You can specify how much of the available memory it should use. Any noticeable improvement in speed will largely depend on how much memory you have installed in the first place. Lower-spec laptops will probably benefit the most.

ReadyBoost isn’t available for XP but there is a decent alternative in the shape of eBoostr (www.eboostr.com). This commercial product costs between £12 and £20 or there’s a free trial version you can use for up to four hours at a time.

Sometimes you want to choose an album and listen to it from start to finish, but sometimes you just want to listen to a variety of tracks. iTues’ Party Shuffle is a great way to listen to music and it picks a random selection of tracks it thinks you’ll like. You can customise the way it works and with a few tweaks it might come up with a better music selection. Go to Edit, Preferences and select the Playback tab. Drag the Smart Shuffle slider to the left or right according to your preferences. You can choose to shuffle songs, albums or groupings too.