What Is Windows Experience Index and How to Find Yours

One of the new features that came with Vista and was able to make a lot of people upgrade their hardware is the Windows Experience Index, a tool that can be compared to a benchmark used to asses your computer's Vista performance, but there are a few myths here, and some of them are also sustained by Microsoft, but today I'll try to give you the naked truth on this topic.


Probably the worst choice they made regarding this tool was to choose as your PC's score the lowest subscore obtained, so if your computer has an integrated graphics chip, you'll probably end up getting a frustrating 1.0 Windows Experience Index score. We'll continue this discussion in the end, because now I'll show you how to find what's your current Windows Experience Index.

- Press the Start Orb to bring up the Start menu and click on Control Panel to open it.


- Left click on System and Maintenance.


- In the System and Maintenance window, choose Performance Information and Tools, as you can see below.


- Now, you can check your current Windows Experience Score, and if you want to benchmark your system again (for example, if you just overclocked your CPU or upgraded your video card since last time), simply click on the Update My Score text link and go get a coffee or a beer, because it takes several minutes for the results to be ready.


Now, let's get back to our story. According to Microsoft, a rating between 4.0 and 4.9 allows you to "Run all programs from previous levels with excellent performance. Run Windows Media Center with high-definition video.", but I must disagree with them.If you are using an integrated video card, but your CPU-memory-hard drive trio gets subscores over 4.0, you'll be able to use the Windows Classic interface and get excellent all-around performance, excepting games and other graphics-intensive applications, of course.

Currently, the maximum score possible is 5.9, so don't worry if your $5,000 PC can't get a mark above 6. Probably Vista's first service pack will add higher scores to the Windows Experience Index, together with the rest of expected improvements and fixes, but there's still some time until we'll see that happening.

I will be waiting for your questions, because I am sure that this Windows Experience Index score can spoil the joy of having a new computer for many people, especially when Microsoft says that a 1.0 computer can only "Work with productivity programs, web browsers, and e-mail and instant-messaging programs. Play simple games."...