Hi everyone.... nortswa here in Perth West.Aust. , I have a Windows Experience Index of 5.9 Sounds not too bad but Why isnt it better?!How can a person getdocumentation indicating what is the best for a systemBEFORE the build?And will it make any difference if we have higher subscores? e.g. a HDD of 7.9 instead of 7.2. Or is this unachievable?1. Gaming graphics 2301 MB Total available graphics memory 5.9 2 - PrimaryHDD which is 7.2 instead of 7.9 It gets used often so a higher score would be desirabe. Is this logical and possible? Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 7.2 3.The "CORSAIR RAM " which Iselected did seem to be the best for my system looking at available data. How could I have done better? Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB 7.2 4.RE Graphics + gaming graphics , Is it a matter of waiting for an updated driver for the GPU?Another thing , I chose the NVIDIA driver over the WINDOWS7 driver. In hindsight I believe the WIN7 was a better driver! The WIN7 has no rollback feature in the driver selection dialog box. Anyone tell me how to swap driversAGAIN please? Gaming graphics 2301 MB Total available graphics memory 5.9 Primary hard disk 32GB Free (117GB Total) 5.9 5. Of all things, I would have thought a primary HDD should have abetter score! Anyone know how tofind a HDD witha higher score?6.When I first installed WIN7 there was an icon on the task bar which enabled you to "click" to get an uncluttered desktop - Very clever and usefull. But it has disappeared and I don't know how to get it back ! Does anyone out there know how to get the desktop icon back to the taskbar? Tried the control panel search but no go.... 7. In XP or Vista there was a "RUN"dialog box which you could access on the "START" menu. I was able to go "MSCONFIG" toaccess the startup files. It was an easy was to improve the startup time. Anyone know how I canfind the startup files now?Thankyou anyone who can assist me in these areas. - Regards -Nortswa In Perth west Aust.

Hi NortswaYou will not be able to get the maximum score on most of the components that are scored by the WEI.The reason is that the maximum score for the WEI was changed in Windows 7 to include future, emerging technologies, such as SSD (Solid State Drives), improved CPU technologies, etc,which are still in development and not availabe yet. There is a good article that explains this and other WEI concepts at the following link. This article was written by the Windows 7 developers who created the WEI.Engineering Windows 7 - Engineering the Windows 7 Windows Experience IndexIf it were possible to easilyattain the top level scoreswith hardware that is currently available, this would leave people frustrated who upgrade to a newer technologycomponent, that is yet to be released, and don't see any improvement in the WEI score. :)Hope this helps.Thank You for testing Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

nortswa - 1.) Gaming graphics depends on the video card you've got installed. Not so much how much memory you've got available - tho that DOES factorinto the calculation. If your GPU doesn't have the horsepower to handle something, it's just not going to go very far. What kind of video card(s) do you have?2.) I'd say a 7.2 as far as your CPU goes is quite good. You can, perhaps get better by buying a faster chip. 3.) As far as your system memory goes - given the rating system only goes up to 7.9 at the moment, I'd say you're doing very well. 4.) See #1 above. In addition - drivers supplied by Windows tend to be supplied to Microsoft by the hardware vendor. They may be tweaked slightly and report they're from Microsoft, but essentially, they're written by the vendor. A BETA driver from the vendor MAY work better.. Or not. It's hard to say. 5.) Your hard drive... It's probably a drive with 8 or 16 MB of cache, spinning at 7200 RPM. It's in the ballpark for most standard drives. If you really must have a higher score, you'll want to go SSD (Solid State Drive) - and those that are big enough to run Windows on aren't exactly dirt cheap. Yet. Nor are they free of issues. 6.) Define "Uncluttered desktop"... As far as I know, there isn't any button in Windows 7 that does that. Unless you mean the Aero Peek thing - that minimizes everything you have open so you can get to the desktop... In which case, that would be on the very tail end of the taskbar on the right hand side. You have to have Aero enabled and working for that to work.7.) You can still get to the RUN box a number of ways - Winkey+R, for instance. Then again, why? If you click on the Start Orb and look at the bottom, there is a text box you can type into that has the same general function. If you type in MSCONFIG in the search box, it will list MSCONFIG.EXE as well as any documents that mention it. Similarly, if youtype in Word, you'll see MS Word, WordPad and any other app with the word "Word" in it installed - like WordPerfect.You can also enable the Run command in the Start menu by clicking on the Start Orb, Right-clicking on a blank spot on the menu and selecting Properties. Click the Customize button and scroll down the list about 2/3rds of the way down. You'll find the Run Command and a check box. Check it and click OK..

Boy, you are complaining about your WEI score? That is a great score!!! As Ronnie said, 7.0 and up scores are reserved for high-end components like SSD drives, so you getting 2 7.2 scores is awesome, there is nothing to complain about!! Here is my comps score, which is a average computer's score , my comp is only 4 years old and I have added a NVIDIA Geforce 8500GT, added 2 GB of ram to exisiting RAM, added 2nd HDD (IDE, 7200RPM) that win7 runs off of..., and replace original, failing SATA HDD with another SATA HDD, 7200RPM. I envy your score... (well not really since I don't have the money to get components that will score a 7.0 or up) Processor AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ 4.2 4.2 Determined by lowest subscore Memory (RAM) 2.50 GB 4.7 Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 4.4 Gaming graphics 2047 MB Total available graphics memory 4.3 Primary hard disk 20GB Free (35GB Total [edit: on partition] ) 5.3 Windows 7 Ultimate Hello! Please reply back, promptly if possible with the results to solutions to your problem!Curious about Win7 min. system requirements?Readme: Older ATI, Intel onboard graphics, or NVIDIA graphics cards on Windows 7Windows 7 tips - JoelbX

Hi nortswa,Ronnie, Wolfie2k6 and JoelbX's explanation regarding score is precise. At this point, I would like to address your 6th and 7th concerns. Restore Aero Peek================================= 1. Right click on the Taskbar and click Properties to start the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.2. Please make sure the "Preview desktop with Aero Peek" option is not grayed out and checked.3. Click Apply, click OK. Get Run command in Start Menu================================= 1. Right click on the Taskbar and click Properties to start the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.2. Click the Start Menu tab, check Start Menu then click Customize.3. Check the box before Run command and then click OK.4. Click Apply, click OK. Please check if we can get the Run in Start Menu. Hope the above information is useful for you. :) Candice