14 DAY TRIAL // The Windows Experience Index in Windows Vista is designed to evaluate a computer's hardware and software configurations and to assess the joint capabilities via a base score. A low score is synonymous with poor performance and inferior resources. A high score generally guarantees an optimal user experience. However, the Windows Experience Index is not always right. As a matter of fact, Microsoft has revealed that in some cases, the Windows Experience Index will display an erroneous value while rating your system configuration.
The rule is that the base score delivered by the Windows Experience Index is intimately connected with the lowest subscore. While that is indeed the general case, there are two exceptions to this rule. "In Windows Vista, the Windows Experience Index rating may display a lower value than expected. You may experience this problem if either of the following conditions is true: you start Windows Vista for the first time and if the Windows Experience Index runs before you update a driver," Microsoft revealed.
If you get stuck with an incorrect baseline score, all you have to do is update the Windows Experience Index rating. For this, navigate to the Performance Information and Tools, by simply entering the text in the Start Menu's Search Box. Under the base score, you will be able to see the "Update my score" option. Clicking it will enable Windows Vista to recalculate the WEI index for your machine. If the rating was erroneous, the problem will be fixed and your configuration will receive a new base score. Otherwise, you might consider an upgrade for the component that determined the lowest subscore.