No WEI on Windows 8.1?

[Jose_49]

Yosh people! Discovery has begun on the fresh baked OS. One that intrigues me is that I don't see the Windows Experience Index lying around... Has it been hidden, removed, or postponed?

 

 

[Ci7]

my guess it got removed 

 

hardly any manufacturer/developer use that , as the idea intended originally  so MS killed it silently?

[Davo]

It was always rather useless to me

[Jose_49]

I liked the numbers :(

[LimeMaster]

Why are they removing features that were in Windows 8.0? First System images then custom Libaries not being shown by default and now WEI. :(

[MS Bob 11]

Why are they removing features that were in Windows 8.0? First System images then custom Libaries not being shown by default and now WEI. :(

Because they don't get how infuriating a feature removal might be to user X even if user Y doesn't miss it at all.

[Jose_49]

*sigh* Now I can't compare how "good" my PC is when running 8.1 :(

[mrp04]

That's too bad. Oh well, it wasn't very accurate and no software developers actually used the numbers. It was pretty pointless really. 

[dr_crabman]

Noticed it's gone but won't miss it. The idea may have been good at first but nowadays even the cheapest notebooks are powerful enough to run every application known to the normal consumer and for games it was worthless too because a) no publisher used the numbers and b) they were extremely imprecise. It may have been useful once every few years to check if something is fundamentally wrong with a PC but that's not enough imo.

[Jose_49]

Noticed it's gone but won't miss it. The idea may have been good at first but nowadays even the cheapest notebooks are powerful enough to run every application known to the normal consumer and for games it was worthless too because a) no publisher used the numbers and b) they were extremely imprecise. It may have been useful once every few years to check if something is fundamentally wrong with a PC but that's not enough imo.

Well.... I know there's the Internet for that. 

 

But suppose you are with a family member and they need to buy a computer and you're on a trip (as is on my case). They don't want to "mess" with ordering via Internet, so they decide to go to the first shop they can find. 

 

The WEI gives some fast details on how good that computer could perform when looking at low priced computers.

 

I know there must be some background research before buying a machine... 

 

Hmmm. Forget it... I just liked to see high scores... Bigger numbers have some magic within them....

[Dick Montage]

You do all know that WEI was a marketing thing and held very little value, right?

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

That would stink if they really removed it because it showed how good your computer. It wasn't necessary but it was nice to be able to compare your pc with another.

[HawkMan]

You do all know that WEI was a marketing thing and held very little value, right?

 

Had game developers actually used it as a measure for minimum requirements and reccomended it would have been a great tool. unfortunately they didn't. partly because the audience that buys computer games is no longer mothers and father and gamers without knowledge. computer gamers knows what their computers can do nowadays, the audience that would have benefited from this is gaming on consoles. 

[francescob]

Had game developers actually used it as a measure for minimum requirements and reccomended it would have been a great tool. unfortunately they didn't. partly because the audience that buys computer games is no longer mothers and father and gamers without knowledge. computer gamers knows what their computers can do nowadays, the audience that would have benefited from this is gaming on consoles. 

Maybe the reason was that GPU scores were completely unreliable.

[HawkMan]

Maybe the reason was that GPU scores were completely unreliable.

 

still beat everything else, especially the lists of Nvidia this and AMD that, but only with this CPU and that ram and so on. 

[wrack]

8.1 is so fast that you don't need the WEI! I actually didn't mind knowing the slowest component of the machine without caring about the numbers itself though.

[Phouchg]

Nothing to know there really. If the hard drive is not the slowest thing you have there, it ought to be enough [fast] for everyone?

[Dot Matrix]

Why are they removing features that were in Windows 8.0? First System images then custom Libaries not being shown by default and now WEI. :(

 

WEI was a good feature at first, now it's rather useless since no app developer or game developer use it. Also, unless you're running a P4, you're bound to have a relatively high score regardless. My rig is almost 6 years old at this point, and scores 7.2's across the board, the only thing keeping the score down to a 5.9 is my HDD.

[Chris123NT]

WEI is pretty useless these days, so I'm not at all surprised that they removed it, and it doesn't bother me.

 

System images on the other hand?  Yeah don't get me started....

[heuristik]

one use apparently for WEI is its role in determining HDCP.  At least that's what I am gathering after troubleshooting 8.1's refusal to play premium cable channels in Windows Media Center via my CableCard / HDHomeRun Prime Tuner.

 

According to the logs, WEI runs during the Digital Cable Readiness Test.  Tracing led to the report results, and they are most curious:

 

 

16 GB of DDR3 RAM + AMD Phenom 955 Black + AMD HD7770 GPU + 256GB SSD = FAIL.  (Hence my reason for frustration....  That ain't right.)

[PGHammer]

In my case, it's the GPU and HDD (both of which are known porkers - AMD HD5450 and WD Caviar Green 1TB, respectively), and the system (desktop) otherwise dates back to (don't faint) the Vista era.

 

Motherboard - ASUS P5G41M-LX2/GB

CPU - Intel Core2Quad Q6600

RAM -  4 GB DDR2-800 (2 GB x2)

 

heuristik - the only way you are going to NOT get fail is to use an HDMI connection, because PASS ratings require an HDCP-supported connection between either HDHomeRun and PC or PC and display.  If you are using DVI between PC and display, you'll be boarding the FAILboat. I have more CPU than you do, but less GPU - but when I connect my Tivo Premiere to the LAN, I get PASS (due to my PC display being connected via HDMI).

 

By the by, is there a version of the 8.1 Premiere with Media Center *included*?

[MS Bob 11]

HD photo slideshows in the old Photo Gallery were also dependent on WEI. The newer Photo Gallery 201x has the crappy Movie Maker engine with low quality slideshows but high quality slideshows can be enabled with a reg tweak (and if WEI passed). Now no more. :( You're stuck with low quality ones.

[neo1911]

I actually welcome this move. It was just a score to brag about. Thankfully it will make me upgrade less. :)

[theyarecomingforyou]

Microsoft should licence the 3DMark technology and build it into the Windows platform. Publishers could then use those numbers to offer more accurate minimum and recommended specs, with scores grouped into categories based upon performance and features (VRAM, DX11, etc). The problem with WEI is that it was useless from the get-go, as it wasn't at all representative of overall system performance. It didn't help consumers make informed decisions, which is what it was intended for. Microsoft could even offer visual tests?like those in 3DMark and not dissimilar to the Direct3D tests included with DX?and hype up the gaming side. It would certainly help distance itself from the criticism associated with Windows 8.

 

I think the only reason that Microsoft hasn't included features in Windows aimed at gamers is because of its focus on the Xbox brand. In fact Microsoft seems to have gone out of its way to undermine PC in order to protect the Xbox - it killed off the Flight Simulator, Age Of Empires and MechWarrior brands, while deliberately undermining / scrapping PC versions of Halo, Gears Of War and Halo Wars and interfering with creative talents like Chris Roberts. Making Halo 2 Vista only was ridiculous, especially given the two and a half year delay from the Xbox version and shocking quality of the port.

 

Microsoft needs to stop treating PC users as second class citizens, whether it be in respect to the Xbox or tablets.

[heuristik]

By the by, is there a version of the 8.1 Premiere with Media Center *included*?

I used the key that I had already for the RTM version, and it worked fine.

 

I'm aware of the displayport issues with HDCP, but DVI has worked fine for me on my other machines, as well as this one when it was running W8 RTM.

 

I meant to include in my original post the WEI results that show up in the logs.  I'm still parsing through everything, but i thought this was interesting:

*Criterion Data*

Name: Memory:

Parent Node: WinSPR

Element Name: MemoryScore#4.3

Score: 4.3

 

*Criterion Data*

Name: Processor:

Parent Node: WinSPR

Element Name: CpuScore#2.2

Score: 2.2

 

*Criterion Data*

Name: Graphics:

Parent Node: WinSPR

Element Name: GraphicsScore#3.3

Score: 3.3

 

 

*Results Criteria*

*Criterion Data*

Name: Memory:

Parent Node: MemoryScore

Element Name: 7.3

Score: 7.3

 

*Criterion Data*

Name: Processor:

Parent Node: CpuScore

Element Name: 7.3

Score: 7.3

 

*Criterion Data*

Name: Graphics:

Parent Node: GraphicsScore

Element Name: 7.3

Score: 7.3

 

If I'm reading this correctly, they've dropped the ranking for both CPU and GPU down 3 whole notches from RTM to 8.1.  I'm thinking this is probably an error?