What is the Windows Experience Index?

To check this feature, go to Control panel, open performance information and tools, click update my score.

The windows experience index is a new feature available in windows vista. If you have installed vista newly then you got to check the performance of the hardware components. Ratings are available for hardware, especially Processor, Memory, Graphics, Gaming Graphics and Primary Harddisk. Sub score are displayed for these components and base score is taken out of the sub score.

The base score is the least score achieved by the hardware. The lower base score means the lesser performance from the hardware and more the base score, the better performance you’ll have. Based on this analysis you can plan to buy your software that works best for your system. The score ratings ranges are 1.0 to 5.9, where 5.9 is the top score you can target.

Every time you install windows vista (or) new hardware, you need to update the score for vista to recognize the added performance. Windows aero will start after you install the drivers for graphics card and your base score updated. Aero requires base score 2.0 or above to work. If you have base score 1.0 you can run office application and browse internet, but you cannot use vista’s graphics demanding features.

A base score of 4.0 or 5.0 is required to run HDTV content, 3D gaming, Powerful graphics requirement of applications and the most of vista’s full featured animated graphics. The detailed information of the system like total Harddisk, active network adapters, and graphics can also be viewed from the view and print details option.

So if your base score is below 2.0, it indicates that you can have minimal pleasure out of your system, so plan to buy new hardware to improve system performance than blaming Windows Vista.