What's Not Tested?

WinSAT is not intended to measure fidelity – the visual quality of video, or specific frames, as perceived by a human. It was proposed that WinSAT include an ability to check the fidelity of decoded video frames as they would be displayed. However, this is out of scope for WinSAT and can be better measured by other tools and techniques.

Considering resource utilization in the WinEI scoring model has also been discussed.  Microsoft is not planning on include this in the Windows 7 model. If such a test is included in future releases of WinEI, it would require testing and analyzing video playback resource utilization for all formats over the necessary hardware configurations.

Features & Concepts No Longer Included

Several things listed as possibilities in the earlier versions of the Windows Experience Index for Windows 7 have been eliminated from the Windows 7 plan :

• Including video memory ready back bandwidth in the desktop graphics score.
• Inclusion of a workload designed to simulate a Silverlight workload.
• Incorporation of mobile capabilities (size, weight, physical screen size, battery life).
• Characteristics such as weight, size and physical screen size are relatively easy for consumers to understand and evaluate – they don’t need WinEI to provide extra context.
• Inclusion of a WinEI button in the Welcome Center.
• Major changes to the WinSAT CPU assessments.
• The UI will not communicate the details as to which specific assessments need to be re-run to update the score after a hardware change.
• Microsoft will not enhance the view and print details page from the Performance Information and Tools control panel in Windows 7. Specifically, they have not updated the ”View and print details” page to :
  • Display the number of processors and sockets.
  • Indicate if Hyper Threading is enabled.
  • Display the information for a second graphics adapter, if present.

Other Microsoft Scoops :

• The Microsoft Windows 7 SKU Strategy Revealed!
• An Inside Look Into The New Windows 7 Experience Index!
• The Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade Program
• The Latest Microsoft Windows 7 Roadmap
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 RTM Details
• Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 Details
• Windows Vista Service Pack 2's Latest Release Schedule
• Latest Details On Windows Vista Service Pack 2
• Installing DirectX 9 Can & Will Kill DirectX 10

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