Knowing whether or not your PC is going to run Windows Vista is pretty important for Windows users. I believe that most people will be fine. However some notebook users may run into some trouble…

Microsoft is building into the new operating system a tool that will rate a PC based on how well it is running and on how much it can take advantage of Vista’s capabilities.

The “Windows Performance Rating,” which can be seen in the latest test version of the operating system, evaluates components such as the processor, the memory, the hard drive and graphics cards to come up with an overall score.

The rating appears in a large blue circle and can be seen in multiple places in the operating system, though Microsoft has said little about what exactly the rating signifies. The main rating is on a scale of 1 to 5, but individual components are also given a “sub rating” on some other, unspecified range.

“The idea behind the Windows Performance Rating is to help average consumers easily understand their Windows Vista PC’s overall performance, and to simplify the process of determining whether certain software applications will run smoothly based on their system components,” Microsoft said in a statement provided to CNET News.com. Source: News.com

Tags: vista, cnet, windows performance rating, pc performance, software applications