The World According to Mitch

In my earlier article I was gushing about just how fast Windows 8 runs on my laptop.  Unfortunately you are going to have to take my word for it, because the simplest way to quantify it – the Windows Experience Rating – is not available to me.

It seems that Windows blocks the ability to measure these five key indices – the speed of the Processor, Memory, Graphics, Gaming graphics, and Primary hard disk – if you are running off boot-to-VHD.  This is too bad, and a bit surprising.  I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if it had returned a warning that ‘The hard drive rating may not be accurate because of…’ or even ‘Because you are booted from a Virtual Hard Disk the rating for your Primary hard disk will be skipped.’ 

Oh well, I guess I will have to live with the fact that ‘Holy crap, my computer is faster than I’ve ever seen it before, but I cannot put an actual number to it!

I should mention one change from Windows 7 (and its predecessor):  The Windows Experience Index is now ranked on a 1.0-9.9 scale, instead of the previous 1.0-7.0 scale.  I suppose this means that they are looking forward to a giant leap in hardware advancements coming up with the release of Windows 8, which is good news for anyone looking to buy a new computer!  As for me, I have my eyes on a couple of new toys… but I will keep those under wraps until I actually have them in my grubby little hands!