Vista rating tool is tweaked

Microsoft has reworked the PC assessment tool in Windows Vista after fielding complaints from hardware makers — but the changes may not be enough to completely quell concerns.

In May, the software maker promised to make changes to the Windows System Performance Rating tool, which aims to assess how capable a machine is of harnessing the upcoming operating system's new features. Critics were unhappy with the way it presented scores and how it came up with its ratings.

The tool is designed to help consumers make sense of Vista's fairly complicated needs when it comes to memory, graphics performance and other internal components. It looks at five benchmarks and presents an individual score for each, as well as an overall rating for the system.

The newly renamed Windows Experience Index includes tweaks both in the built-in software and in the way that the assessment is described. Despite these, some partners still believe that the score generated by the tool is not a balanced reflection of a computer's abilities.

Officially, Intel said, "We continue to work closely with Microsoft to shape and influence (the rating tool), but we have no further comment at this time."

However, a source close to the chip giant said that it remains concerned that the tool places too much emphasis on the graphics and memory power needed to take full advantage of Vista's Aero user interface and advanced media features. "It's very heavily focused on graphics performance," the source said.

In contrast, Intel believes that the tool doesn't adequately account for important characteristics, such as whether a processor has more than one core, or the battery life offered by a notebook, the source said.

The source added that the chipmaker applauds the notion of offering consumers a simpler system to understand PC performance, but argues that Microsoft's software does them a disservice by not reaching that goal.

"If this thing is promoted to consumers, they should understand what its strengths and weaknesses are," the source said.

Microsoft has made a number of changes to the software, though many of the tweaks won't be publicly visible until it releases the first near-final "release candidate" version of the operating system later this quarter. The oft-delayed Vista is scheduled to be in consumers' hands by January.

For starters, Microsoft redubbed the tool the Windows Experience Index, arguing the moniker better represents what it measures.

It has also given the new name "base score" to the overall rating generated by the tool. It's an effort to clarify that the main rating is the lowest score given to an individual component, rather than an average of each of the five subratings. The tool rates a system on its processor, memory, hard drive, graphics card and gaming graphics.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, which says it is generally supportive of Microsoft's effort, said that Microsoft's changes should make the tool better. The new name makes it clearer that it is not a raw measure of PC performance, but rather a Windows-specific assessment, AMD program manager Clarice Simmons said. She also praised Microsoft's move to rename the score generated by the tool.

"I know that several partners gave them some feedback that the overall rating was a little bit difficult to understand," Simmons said. She added that there is a natural tendency to assume the overall score is the average of the various components.

In another change, Microsoft is allowing the base score to be more varied. The earlier version offered decimal point ratings, such as "4.1", for assessments of the individual features, but relied on whole numbers for the overall score. The revamped index now uses decimals for the base score as well.

Good for graphics
The changes, though important to the partners that largely support the rating tool, don't appear to address the concerns of Intel and others.

Graphics chipmakers, meanwhile, are understandably pleased with the prominent attention given to their products, noting that Windows Vista…