Datasheet

Calculating the WEI
11
To see your computer’s Windows Experience Index,
follow these steps:
1.
Choose Start➪Control Panel. Click the System
and Maintenance link.
2.
Under the System icon, click the link marked
Check Your Computer’s Windows Experience
Index Base Score.
Vista shows you the Performance Information
and Tools dialog box shown in Figure 1-1.
• Figure 1-1: Vista’s benchmark of your computer’s
performance.
3.
If you’ve changed hardware recently — or if
you’re looking at a computer in a dealer’s
showroom or considering buying one from a
Friendly FlyByNight Fleamarket Fellow — click
the link marked Update My Score.
Why? Because Vista doesn’t recalculate the
Windows Experience Index score very often, and
it may be possible to jimmy the score. Best to
run an update (see the sidebar “WinSAT”) and be
sure that the score you see matches the hard-
ware in the box.
If you run an update, the WinSAT program takes
a few minutes, keeping you posted on the tests
that it’s running (see Figure 1-2). When it’s done,
your newly refreshed scores appear.
• Figure 1-2: The Windows System Assessment Tool,
WinSAT, updates all of your WEI scores.
WinSAT
The Windows Experience Index amounts to little more than
a pretty face painted onto a sophisticated, multitalented pro-
gram called WinSAT, or the Windows System Assessment
Tool. If you installed Vista from a DVD, WinSAT ran before
you first logged on — when the aurora kept dancing on your
screen. WinSAT results were used to determine whether
Vista would first appear with the Aero Glass see-through
interface running; less-capable video cards don’t get Glass.
WinSAT also runs when certain kinds of hardware get
installed — graphic card installers, in particular, are sup-
posed to call WinSAT when the drivers are set up. When
you tell Vista to Update My Score, WinSAT runs again.
Application installers can pluck numbers out of WinSAT while
they run, modifying a program’s options to take advantage of
your computer’s capabilities (or lack thereof).So the numbers
you see in your Windows Experience Index may influence
the features of the software installed on your computer.
Calculating the WEI
The Windows Experience Index consists of five com-
ponent scores and an overall base score, which is
simply the lowest of the five component scores.
Microsoft figures — with no small amount of
justification — that your PC’s performance chain is
only as strong as its weakest link. Yank the chain,
and the slowest link bogs down the entire system.
In order to understand your overall score, you must
therefore look at each component and struggle with
the nuances.
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