Use ReadyBoost
ReadyBoost is a feature of Windows that was introduced in Windows Vista. It essentially uses a flash drive as a bit of extra memory.
Perhaps not as good as swapping a traditional hard drive for a solid state one or adding more RAM, ReadyBoost will give a little uptick to the performance of your system. It puts aside a part of the flash drive memory for things such as caching, assisting often-used apps to open quicker, and increasing random read access speeds of the hard disk.
To use ReadyBoost, first insert a USB memory drive or SD card into an empty slot on the laptop you wish to speed up. A dialogue box will open asking you what you want to do with the flash drive. Choose 'Speed up my system using Windows ReadyBoost'. Another window will open and here you can select how much of the drive you wish to use on the flash pen. It is generally a good idea to use as much of the drive as possible.
Once that is done, confirm the settings and the window will close. The drive will be automatically detected and used whenever it is plugged it.
One last note; if your machine is already judged to be fast enough, Windows will prevent you from using ReadyBoost.
