Windows 7 - Improved ‘Windows Experience Index ‘

For those of us using Vista, we are experienced in using the ‘Windows Experience Index’, which seems to provide lackluster results. Since the WEI score is based on lowest of ALL scores, this doesn’t seem to provide any benefit to the user. But Windows 7 may change the way WEI works.

On their blog site Microsoft states that:

The overall Windows Experience Index (WEI) is defined to be the lowest of the five top-level WEI subscores, where each subscore is computed using a set of rules and a suite of system assessment tests. The five areas scored in Windows 7 are the same as they were in Vista and include:

• Processor
• Memory (RAM)
• Graphics (general desktop work)
• Gaming Graphics (typically 3D)
• Primary Hard Disk

Though the scoring areas are the same, the ranges have changed. In Vista, the WEI scores ranged from 1.0 to 5.9. In Windows 7, the range has been extended upward to 7.9. The scoring rules for devices have also changed from Vista to reflect experience and feedback comparing closely rated devices with differing quality of actual use (i.e. to make the rating more indicative of actual use.) We know during the beta some folks have noticed that the score changed (relative to Vista) for one or more components in their system and this tuning, which we will describe here, is responsible for the change.

Whether this will provide a more accurate score will not be fully known until the final is released. Hopefully the new WEI will be more accurate.

Comments welcome.

Source.