Windows Experience Index or what is slowing down your computer? Shows Windows 7 performance rating.

The Windows 7 Performance Index is an indicator that, in simple terms, shows how cool your computer is (or how weak it is, depending on who you are). This is a great way to find out whether a given computer is suitable for cool games or all its capabilities come down to moderate carrying of office programs.

Understanding how to find out the performance of Windows 7 is necessary if you are going to buy a computer, but do not understand the hardware, and, accordingly, cannot understand how many megabytes of RAM and how many gigahertz in the process you need for your purposes. In general, if you don’t understand computers at all, then this was invented for you.

Before you find out the Windows 7 Experience Index, you need to click “Start” and select “Control Panel”. Here you need to set the view type to “Category”.

Then you need to go to the “System and Security” section and on the next page, in the “System” section, click on “Windows Experience Index Check”.

And a window with this parameter will open in front of you.

But finding out the Windows Experience Index is not enough. Now you need to understand which one will suit you and which one is too small.

Normal performance index

So, the Windows Experience Index ranges from 1.0 to 7.9. If you are going to do office work on a computer, then you need one with a performance index of 3.0 to 5.0. If your computer work involves serious graphics programs, then you need an index of more than 5.0. If you are going to play the heaviest games, then choose the highest performance index.

The normal Windows Experience Index is at least 3.0. If it is smaller, then working on such a computer will be inconvenient, programs will freeze.

How to improve your performance index

Before you can increase the Windows Experience Index, you need to know how it is calculated. Many people think that from the arithmetic average of each part, but in fact - from the lowest estimate of the hardware. That is, if the indicator turns out to be too low, it means that there is some kind of ballast in the computer that is pulling the entire system down. You can find such ballast in the same window of the performance index - the piece of hardware with the lowest score is the weak link.

Accordingly, in order to increase the Windows 7 performance index, it is necessary to replace this weak part with a more powerful one. Then the lower threshold of the assessment will rise, and with it the performance index of the entire system.

Usually the weak link is the video card. As a rule, they use an integrated weak card against the backdrop of powerful hardware, and installing a more powerful one will increase the performance index.

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Windows 7 has a very interesting feature that evaluates the capabilities of your computer based on its hardware and software configuration. It's a pity that you can use it after purchasing a computer, and not before. But seriously, this feature is called the “Windows 7 Experience Index”. Let's figure out what it is.

What is assessed and how?

First of all, the main components of the computer are tested for performance - the central processor, hard drive, random access memory (RAM) and graphics. To get an estimate, click “Start”, “Control Panel”. In a large list we look for “Counters and productivity tools”. Click.

If you haven't used this feature yet, you'll see a "rate your computer" button in the lower right corner. If the operation has already been carried out, then the previous Windows 7 performance index will be reflected on the screen. To update, click “Repeat.”

You should not run any programs while the computer performance assessment is running. Upon completion, a window with the results will appear.

What do these numbers indicate?

Grades are given on a scale from 1.0 to 7.9. The approach of the base index to the upper mark indicates the power of the computer. Don't assume that the base index is an average of the data obtained. This is the least of them. In our case, the processor received a rating of 5.1, memory 5.5, graphics 4.3, hard drive 5.4. From this we got a base index of 4.3.

Obviously, in order to increase the performance of a computer, it is necessary to either update obsolete components or correctly configure those components that received a low rating. In our case, this is graphics.

What can be changed?

The question arises: “How to increase the Windows 7 Experience Index”? First, you need to independently optimize the operation of your computer. At a minimum, we include the following list of actions:

• turn off visual effects
• disable unused services
• check your hard drive for errors and bad clusters
• defragment your disks
• Clean your computer of unused files.

Update the Windows 7 Experience Index - in 99% of cases, the above actions will affect its score. If nothing changes, update your hardware driver versions. You can use ready-made programs to optimize the system, for example, TuneUp Utilities or Windows 7 Optimizer. All in your hands!

A modern computer is a complex device, the final performance of which depends on many factors. The speed of the hard drive, RAM, and video card power often become more significant than the clock speed of the central processor. An intuitive assessment of Windows system performance can roughly indicate the problem, but only the performance index can accurately calculate weak points and find a solution.

What is a performance index

To calculate system performance indicators, Microsoft uses test tasks that maximally load each individual computer hardware component. In this way, five indices are calculated: for the central processor, graphics, game graphics, RAM and the main hard drive. The smaller of these is considered the base index for the entire system. The scale starts at 1.0, the highest score is 7.9, but it rises as more powerful hardware solutions become available.

The base index is close to the average for a balanced general purpose computer, since all scores in this configuration are approximately equal. Dedicated hardware solutions are subject to deviations. For example, office computers usually have a weaker video card, while multimedia solutions require a faster hard drive. In such cases, the overall computer index will be significantly lower than the average, since it is determined by the lowest value. This leads to a simple rule: to increase the base index (and overall computer performance), you should increase the power of the weakest component.

If the hardware requirements for the installed software indicate a minimum base index value, this means that it will work stably on a computer with this or a higher index value.

How to recognize him

To see what your computer's performance index is, open Start, then Control Panel.

In the large “All Control Panel Items” window that opens, find the “Performance Meters and Tools” tab and go to it.

The same result can be achieved using a system search. Click "Start" and enter the word "Counters" in the search bar.

Another way to immediately go to the desired window is to press the key combination Win (with the Windows icon) and Pause / Break (a service key, usually located next to Print Screen).

The “Evaluating and increasing computer performance” window that opens contains a lot of information.

The central part is occupied by the current indexes of computer components with a brief description. The overall score is highlighted large and provided with a comment on the calculation “Determined by the lowest score.” Several buttons lead to help: “What do these numbers mean?”, “More about ratings and software (online),” “Tips for improving computer performance.” Windows 7 tries to clearly explain both the principles of forming the rating scale and the best ways to increase the base index. This window is especially useful when upgrading computer hardware, as it stores indexes from previous testing. You can use the special button “Display and print detailed information about computer and system performance” to print the current indicators, and then run a new test by clicking on the “Repeat assessment” on-screen button in the lower right corner.

The same button must be pressed to begin the current test, which usually takes a few minutes. At this time, the computer is operating at maximum power, the screen goes out and lights up several times, which is a consequence of ongoing tests and does not pose a danger.

What do the points mean?

Possible maximum score

Although Windows currently advertises a maximum score of 7.9 points, this value can only be achieved in the maximum configuration, using the most modern processor, memory and graphics accelerators. The need for such powerful equipment usually arises in computers designed for resource-intensive applications - games, virtual reality systems, and so on. For specialized solutions, lower performance of the base index is considered normal.

Table: scores and performance description

Considering the methodology for forming the index (based on the lowest indicator), there are no clear boundaries between configurations. A powerful computer with a slow hard drive and a balanced weak hardware solution can have the same index value.

How can you improve your score?

An obvious way to increase the overall performance of a computer is to update its weakest nodes. RAM can be replaced with a faster one or simply increased in quantity. The same goes for the hard drive. On a desktop computer, you can also replace the graphics card or processor. Laptops have significantly less upgrade capabilities. A more economical way is to configure the system and its individual components, allowing you to eliminate some restrictions in their operation.

Graphics settings

Visual effects, high screen resolution, and working with multiple connected monitors take up a significant portion of the resources of the computer’s graphics nodes. Therefore, you can reduce the load on this component and, accordingly, improve overall performance by disabling some Windows 7 options or reducing the screen resolution.

To change the graphics settings, you need to right-click on a free area of ​​the desktop. In the context menu that opens, select the “Screen resolution” line.

The “Screen Resolution” window that appears contains other parameters of the connected monitors, for example, graphic design (themes). Now we select the "Resolution" drop-down list.

From the list of possible resolution options, select a lower one than the current one.

Hard drive care

Cleaning up unnecessary information and maintaining a sufficient amount of free disk space can significantly increase the speed of the drive. In addition, if the computer does not have a solid-state drive, but a regular disk, then it is necessary to regularly carry out the defragmentation procedure. This operation combines disparate parts of stored files, bringing them together, thereby reducing read and write times. The reader needs to spend less effort to move from one part to another if they are located in a row. In addition, free space is also consolidated, allowing new files to be written as a whole block.

Click the “Start” button and type “Disk Defragmenter” in the input line, then select the tab that appears with the same name.

The system shows all available drives in one window, allows you to analyze their status and carry out immediate defragmentation.

For regular operation, you can set up an appropriate schedule so that, for example, you run the utility at night.

Defragmentation takes considerable time if the hard drive is large and there is little free space on it, so it is recommended to delete unnecessary information first - this will speed up the work.

System care

Timely updates, replacing drivers with current ones, and using special programs to detect problems in software are also of great importance for the index. You can use the system interface to update the driver for the selected device.

Click the “Start” button and type “Driver Update” in the input line. The system shows search results, including the required “Device Driver Update” tab, which we go to.

The main window of Device Manager contains a list of all hardware components installed on the computer. We select the one whose driver we want to update and right-click on its name.

By selecting the line “Update drivers...” from the context menu, we start the process. In the next window, the system will offer to choose one of two options: automatic search on the Internet or manual search on the computer.

The average user rarely downloads new drivers to the computer in advance, so we select “Automatic search...” and wait for the update. Windows 7 checks that the installed driver is up to date and updates it if necessary. The same steps should be taken for other devices from the list of “Device Manager”.

There are also many free applications, including those that do not require installation, that perform the process of checking and updating drivers in a semi-automatic mode. For example, DriverPack Solution first scans your computer and compiles its own list of hardware components and drivers. The program accesses the websites of device manufacturers and checks for updates, after which it downloads and installs new drivers. The application has a simple and friendly interface designed for entry-level users.

Changing Power Settings

To work more efficiently, Windows 7 sometimes deliberately reduces performance. For example, this applies to power settings. You can sacrifice some of the autonomy (for a laptop) or energy savings by preventing Windows 7 from switching to the appropriate modes. To do this, type “mobility center” in the search bar and select the appropriate tab.

There are several settings in the window that opens. We are interested in the power settings in which we select the high performance mode. In this case, you need to take into account: battery consumption will increase slightly, which will reduce the battery life of the laptop.

Using the ReadyBoost feature

There is free space not only on the hard drive, but also on external media, including USB flash drives. ReadyBoost allows you to reserve some part of it for the needs of Windows 7. To enable the option, you need to select removable media in Explorer and right-click the context menu in which to select the “Properties” option. Now all that remains is to go to the ReadyBoost tab and set the size of the reserved space.

If the performance review doesn't work or is missing

In some cases, the system refuses to evaluate performance due to cost considerations or more serious obstacles.

Time to troubleshoot

Possible reasons why the assessment could not be made:

• The assessment has already started. The ability to update scores is disabled while the test is running. You should either cancel the current process or wait for it to finish before starting it again.
• Lack of access rights. Sometimes the reason may be a restriction of user rights for a specific account. You should log in as an administrator and try to complete the assessment again.
• The laptop is disconnected from the network. Since calculating indices requires significant energy consumption, Windows 7 prohibits it from being performed when the laptop is running offline. The computer must be plugged into a power outlet.
• Lack of disk space. To evaluate Windows 7, you need a certain amount of free space on your hard drive onto which the test file is written. You should clean the drive as much as possible and then try the evaluation again.
• No multimedia support. Windows 7 can't measure the performance of computers that don't have multimedia capabilities.
• Outdated video driver. A faulty or outdated video driver will prevent Windows 7 from testing performance. You should check the latest system updates and, if necessary, install the latest driver versions or, conversely, return earlier ones. When installing drivers, it is better to use the official website of the manufacturer of your computer, and not, for example, a video card.
• Antivirus operation. Sometimes the cause is the active operation of antivirus programs. You should turn them off for a while and try the test again.
• Outdated BIOS. You should update your BIOS to the latest version.

Reinstalling video codecs

A common cause of the problem is damaged or conflicting video codecs. These are files containing algorithms for unpacking video recordings, without which the computer will not be able to display the video on the screen. Windows 7 uses some of the system codecs to analyze the performance of graphics components, so their corruption or accidental removal makes evaluation impossible. Reinstalling will fix the situation.

Click the “Start” on-screen button and select the “Control Panel” tab in the right column of the menu that opens. In the large All Control Panel Items window, select the Programs and Features tab.

We remove video players, as well as codecs for them.

Click the “Turn Windows components on or off” button and go to the “Windows Components” window.

Find Windows Media Player, uncheck the box next to it, then exit the dialog box and restart the computer. After the download is complete, go to this window again in the same way, return the checkbox to Windows Media Player and reboot again. Let's try testing again.

If the problem is not resolved, the VC-1 codec required for testing may be damaged or missing. It can be installed along with the free K-Lite package for the popular player KMPlayer.

Scan system files

Another reason could be a failure of Windows 7 itself due to damage or deletion of some necessary system files. Press the Win+R combination and in the input line of the “Run” window that appears, type the command to start scanning the system and updating damaged files sfc.exe /scannow.

Installing additional components

One of the reasons for the inability to determine performance may be the absence of the MSVCR100.dll library on the computer. It can be downloaded for free from the official Microsoft website along with the 2010 package:

• https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/download/details.aspx?id=5555 - x32, x86.
• https://www.microsoft.com/ru-ru/download/details.aspx?id=14632 - x64.

If Visual Studio 2010 is already installed, but when you try to determine performance, the system reports problems with MSVCR100.dll, you should reinstall the package, first removing its old version from the computer.

Video: Everything you need to know about the Windows 7 Experience Index

When focusing on the Basic Performance Index when purchasing a computer, you should take into account that the current score is stored on the computer in an unprotected form in the folder C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore in a file whose name begins with the date of the test and ends with “. Formal.Assessment (Initial).WinSAT.xml." An unscrupulous seller can use a regular text editor to change the real numbers to the desired values. Therefore, you should carry out an actual test before purchasing.

Like Windows Vista, Windows 7 tailors some aspects of itself to the characteristics of the system on which it is installed. For example, the Windows 7 interface changes depending on what graphics hardware is installed on the machine: on low-end machines, a simple “Classic” interface is installed, and on machines with high-end graphics control units, the full version of the Aero interface is installed.

In addition, by adapting to the hardware, Windows 7 selects some other aspects. For example, for games, Windows 7 only enables certain features if the hardware can support them. Other hardware-specific capabilities include those related to TV recording (such as how many channels can be recorded simultaneously) and video playback (such as the optimal playback image size and frame rate to avoid dropped frames).

The Windows System Assessment Tool, or WinSAT for short, is responsible for enabling all of these features, not only in Windows 7 itself, but also in third-party applications. This program runs during the system installation process and whenever other major hardware performance changes are subsequently made to the system. It focuses on the following four aspects of system performance: graphics, RAM, CPU, and storage.

For each of these subsystems, WinSAT maintains a set of metrics stored as a score in XML format. To find out what functionality your computer can support, you only need to look at the most recent evaluation of Windows 7. It is important to note that third-party programs may also use some kind of API that allows them to access these scores and therefore provides developers with the ability to customize the functionality of those programs based on WinSAT metrics. A total of five indicators are used, which are described below.

• CPU. This indicator is responsible for how quickly the system can process data, and is measured in the number of calculation operations per second.
• Memory (RAM). This metric measures how quickly the system can move large objects through memory and is measured in memory accesses per second.
• Graphic arts. This metric measures the computer's ability to run a combined desktop like the one created by the Desktop Window Manager, and is expressed in frames per second.
• Graphics for games. This metric measures a computer's ability to render three-dimensional graphics, especially those used in games, and is expressed in frames per second.
• Main hard drive. This indicator is responsible for how quickly the computer can write and read data from the hard drive, and is calculated in megabytes per second.

In addition to WinSAT, Windows 7 comes with a tool called Score and Improve Computer Performance, which evaluates your system based on information about its processor, RAM, hard drive, regular graphics, and gaming graphics, resulting in an overall Windows Experience Index score. .

To launch the tool, click the Start button, type performance in the search box, and then select Performance Tools and Tools from the list of search results. Then, in the Assess and Improve Your Computer Performance window, click the Reassess button to get an initial assessment. As you can see in the figure, Windows 7 evaluates each of the five subcategories and then produces one overall score.

To get a new estimate (for example, if you change equipment that affects performance), you can click the Retry button again. It is quite difficult to interpret the estimates, but in general the following can be said about them.

• Generally, the higher the score, the better the performance.
• The smallest possible value is 1.0.
• The highest possible value is 7.9 (which is higher than the 5.9 that was the maximum in Windows Vista, reflecting hardware improvements over the last few years).
• The overall score is based on the lowest score. That is, if you receive a score of 5.0 for all other indicators, but a score of 1.0 for at least one, the overall score will still be 1.0.

Studying the Windows Experience Index

Before you go shopping for certain computer components, it would be a good idea to determine which components are needed. Windows 7 OS users are lucky - they have a built-in tool at their disposal that will help determine the performance of various computer subsystems.

Based on this information, you can decide which components need updating. Unfortunately, this feature is no longer available in Windows 8.1, and it was not yet available in Windows XP. However, users of these systems can download third-party applications that can help understand the performance of computer components.

1. Open the Start menu and right-click Computer.
2. In the menu that appears, select Properties.
3. In the window that opens, in the System section, you will see either the current performance index or a message that it needs to be updated. Click on this link.
4. In the window that opens, click the Update button. The process of measuring the performance of system components will begin. It may take up to several minutes.
5. Once the performance measurement is complete, you will see the test results. Using them, you can determine the “bottlenecks” of the system, that is, those components that need improvement.

Personal computers are complex computing devices. The effective performance of such a machine is achieved through the use of modern components, but, as is known, over time they become outdated. The performance index will allow Windows 7 users who are unfamiliar with computer hardware to determine what exactly needs to be upgraded.

What is a performance index?

The performance index, as the name suggests, is a tool that automatically evaluates the performance of a computing machine, that is, a personal computer, and its key elements. It should be understood that the system does not show the average value, but the smallest. For example, if the “Processor” parameter is equal to 4 points, and all the others are 5, then as a result you will see exactly 4 in the “Overall Score”.

Performance is determined by all key system parameters: “Processor”, “Memory (RAM)”, “Graphics”, “Game Graphics” and “Main Hard Drive”.

By looking at the table, any computer owner can independently find out which components need to be upgraded.

How do I get a performance rating?

Finding out your performance rating is not difficult. This can be done in two ways: through “Computer” and “Control Panel”.

View in computer and operating system settings

View the "Counters and Productivity Tools" option

In both the first and second cases, you will be taken to a section where you can look at the performance rating of your system. The window will display all the ratings separately, each of which relates to a specific element of the system, as well as the overall rating.

If you have recently improved some element of your personal computer, it is advisable to re-evaluate it manually. To do this, click on the “Repeat assessment” button.

This can only be done with administrator rights. If you are using a guest account, you will need to provide a password for the administrator account, otherwise you will not be able to change the computer performance rating.

What do the points mean? Normal index performance, what can be the maximum rating?

It’s easy to guess that the points you see in the table are an assessment of the performance of a particular system component.

The Windows 7 operating system thus evaluates what tasks the computer can handle. If these scores are high, then there is nothing to worry about, since your PC can successfully handle even time-consuming tasks, but if you see values ​​​​close to 1, then you should think about upgrading.

Let's consider all the elements: the “Processor” component is responsible for the number of operations that the installed processor can perform in one second of time. The “Memory (RAM)” component indicates the speed at which read-write operations are performed per second. “Graphics” is an assessment of desktop performance for the Aero interface enabled, that is, for the desktop itself. The next component, “Graphics for Games,” is already responsible for performance in various applications that require system resources, for three-dimensional graphics. The “main hard drive,” oddly enough, is rated by the speed of data exchange, and not by the capacity of the hard drive.

Optimal performance of the processor and other components

Normal performance index scores should be considered based on the priority tasks you will perform using your computer.

If the computer will be used primarily for simple applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, email browsing and web surfing, then you should pay attention to the amount of RAM and processor. The rating of these indicators can be equal to 5, but you can not pay attention to the “Graphics” component at all - 2 will be quite enough.

Computer games and system resource-intensive applications naturally require the best components. If you are going to perform these types of tasks on your PC, then make sure that the “Processor”, “Memory” and “Game Graphics” components have the highest ratings. The hard drive in this case does not play the most important role, so a score of 3 points will be quite enough.

The maximum performance index score varies depending on the bit size of the system. Modern personal computers have 64-bit operating systems; 32-bit ones are less common. The bit capacity is determined depending on the amount of RAM. Thus, 64-bit OSes are suitable for devices with 4 gigabytes of RAM or more, and 32-bit ones, vice versa. This is due to the fact that 32-bit operating systems are not capable of reading more than 4 gigabytes of RAM. 32-bit devices are rated on a scale of 1.0 to 7.9. 64-bit architectures have a maximum score of 5.9 points.

Boost your score: How to increase PC performance in multiple ways?

Before you run to a specialty store that sells components for personal computers, you can optimize your operating system and PC. This procedure will slightly increase the estimate.

Changing the desktop display - increasing the rating

First, change the operating system interface display. For example, if you have Aero installed, then change it to traditional. The appearance of windows and menus affects the performance of the computer, so this procedure can significantly help you solve the immediate problem.

How to improve your index using diagnostics

Secondly, diagnose logical drives, optimize them, remove unnecessary files and programs. Remember that a cluttered hard drive significantly impairs the performance of the computer as a whole, so make sure that only what you really need is installed on your PC. After removing all programs and files, defragment it, which will allow you to reassemble all remaining files and folders and improve performance.

Thirdly, diagnose the drivers you are using. It is not uncommon that certain drivers can impair the operation of a computer and reduce its performance. If you receive a corresponding notification, then it is better to take care of updating and replacing them.

The last thing that will increase the productivity index is, of course, replacing old components with new ones. You can install an additional memory module if the motherboard has a corresponding connector, or install a more powerful one instead of the old one. On desktop PCs, every element is subject to modernization, everything depends only on your financial capabilities, but with laptops it’s more complicated. For such devices, you can only improve the size of the hard drive or RAM, and, unfortunately, all other elements cannot be upgraded.

Video: determining the performance index in Windows 7

Why performance ratings may disappear and what to do in this case

Typically, the computer performance assessment works offline, without any significant problems.

However, sometimes there are errors in determining the rating, which may be due to: various software supposedly responsible for security when working on the network or codecs. Codecs are software designed to decode and encode media files. The thing is that the system performance assessment itself is based on the VC-1 codec, and when it is changed or upgraded, conflicts may occur.

Disabling antivirus

Click the “Disconnect on...” button (select the disconnection time).

Removing and installing codecs

Most likely, the Decoder parameter for this codec will be set to Disable, change it to Libavcodec and save the changes.

BIOS update

Here you should delete absolutely all files and restart your personal computer. After starting the OS, run the performance assessment again.

Scan system files

Sometimes this is not enough, which means you should check the presence of system files. You can do it like this:

The process of searching for problems in system files and then eliminating them will begin.

Reinstalling Visual Studio 2010

If you get an error when running a performance assessment that indicates MSVCR100.dll is missing, then you will have to reinstall Visual Studio 2010. This is a free library available for download by all users on the official Microsoft website. You need to choose a package based on the bit capacity of your system, and you can find it out like this:

The Computer Performance Index is a useful tool that allows the user to promptly determine the need to upgrade a particular part of the device.