The New Windows Experience Index (WinEI)

Although Microsoft has consistently asserted in public that Windows 7 will probably only be launched in 2010, the truth is they are rushing for a December 2009 release. Here are more signs of how close they are to completion.

We recently obtained documents detailing the in-depth details of the new Windows Experience Index (WinEI) scoring model which will be used in Windows 7. The documents reveal interesting details of how Microsoft grades the performance of hardware and what has changed in the new Experience Index for Windows 7. It is especially interesting to see what they consider "good enough" performance for Windows 7.

Microsoft closed the feedback period for this scoring model on February 16, so unless there are significant opposition from their OEM partners, this would be the final scoring model for hardware in Windows 7. Let's take a look at the details of the improved Windows Experience Index!

What Is The Windows Experience Index?

The new Windows Experience Index (WinEI) scoring model for Windows 7 adds or updates the following :

• New scoring levels 6 and 7. The maximum score is now 7.9.
• DX10 graphics tests.
• Storage performance tests based on random I/O and the write-flush policy tests which measure performance using a mix of reads and writes. These tests are in addition to the existing sequential read test.
• A new disk scoring limit (“cap”) for storage scores based on the results of the write-flush policy tests
• Addition of single-threaded CPU performance tests.
• Improvements in robustness.
• Enables the DWM test to be run independently of the other WinSAT tests.
• Moves non-DWM tests to run post-OOBE (at idle, well after the user’s initial “out-of-the-box experience”), thereby speeding up OOBE.

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