Windows Experience Index

I have this really boss computer that I'm going to put Vista on. I ran Windows NT 4.0 on it for a long time, then I loaned it out to my crazy brother-in-law, who finally gave it back. I'm not sure what he did with it, but it boots up to something called FreeBSD, which I think is for running pirated arcade games, or something.

My brother-in-law's kind of a pinko freak. Listens to a lot of Joan Baez records.

Anyway, like I said, it's a really boss computer, but it's not the newest one you've ever seen. Luckily, Microsoft has thought of everything. Vista has this cool feature called the Windows Experience Index, which tells you exactly what to expect on any given computer once you've made the move to the world's greatest OS.

The scores run from 1.0 to 5.9, as follows:

A computer with a base score of 1.0 or 2.0 usually has sufficient performance to do most general computing tasks, such as run office productivity applications and search the Internet. However, a computer with this base score is generally not powerful enough to run Windows Aero, or the advanced multimedia experiences that are available with Windows Vista.

A computer with a base score of 3.0 is able to run Windows Aero and many new features of Windows Vista at a basic level. Some of the new Windows Vista advanced features might not have all of their functionality available. For example, a machine with a base score of 3.0 can display the Windows Vista theme at a resolution of 1280 × 1024, but might struggle to run the theme on multiple monitors. Or, it can play digital TV content but might struggle to play High Definition Television (HDTV) content.

A computer with a base score of 4.0 or 5.0 is able to run all new features of Windows Vista with full functionality, and it is able to support high-end, graphics-intensive experiences, such as multiplayer and 3 D gaming and recording and playback of HDTV content. Computers with a base score of 5.0 were the highest performing computers available when Windows Vista was released.

Anyway, I think this FreeBSD thing must've broken something on my computer, because it's not getting the scores it should. I mean, 1.0 is supposed to be the lowest score. For Pete's sake, this thing has dual Pentium II Overdrive 333 MHz CPUs (Socket 8, no less! You could use 'em as surfboards!)! That's not a minus 2.3 CPU score. And the video card is a state-of-the-art, dual-VGA Matrox Millenium G200. Windows Experience Index graphics score? 0.25. Cripes!

Well, I'm going to go ahead and put Vista Ultimate on it, and see what happens. I can't wait to fire up Mahjong Titans!