In addition to configuring Windows Vista for optimum performance, you can also use built-in tools to monitor performance.

Check the Windows Vista Experience Index
The Windows Experience Index is a feature built into Windows Vista that shows how well Windows Vista and other software will perform on a computer. A computer running Windows Vista is assigned a rating number called a base score that is a simplified measurement of a computer’s hardware configuration. The scale of the Windows Experience Index ranges from 1.0 to 5.9. A higher base score generally means that the computer will perform better and faster than a computer with a lower base score The base score of your computer is determined by reviewing performance scores assigned to hardware components in the computer, as shown in Figure 18. These components include:

• RAM random access memory
• CPU central processing unit
• Hard disk
• General graphics performance on the desktop
• 3D graphics capability

A computer’s base score is determined by the lowest
component score. For example, if the lowest score of any component is 3.3, then the base score will be 3.3. A score of 3 is considered average and adequate for performing most tasks. A score of 4 or 5 is considered adequate for performing advanced functions.

Check Performance with Task Manager

Task Manager provides information about applications and processes that are currently running on a computer, and also provides real-time performance information about the processor, memory, and network usage. You can start Task Manager in the following ways:

• Right-click any open space on the Windows taskbar and click Task Manager.
• Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and select Start Task Manager.
• Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESCAPE.

The main tab in the Task Manager window that measures performance is the Performance tab, shown in Figure 19.

The Performance tab is divided into the following sections:

• CPU Usage indicates the percentage of processor cycles that are not idle at the moment. If this graph displays a high percentage continuously (and not when there is an obvious reason, like such as a big application), your processor may be overloaded. If your computer has two processors, two graphs are shown.
• CPU Usage History indicates how busy the processor has been recently, although the graph only shows values since Task Manager was opened.
• Memory indicates the percentage of the physical memory that is currently being used.
• Physical Memory Usage History indicates how full the physical memory has been over time, although it also only shows values since Task Manager was opened.
• Physical Memory (MB) indicates the total and available physical memory, as well as the amount of memory in the system cache.
• Kernel Memory (MB) indicates the memory used by the operating system. Paged kernel memory is available only to system processes. Non-paged kernel memory can be used by applications when necessary.
• System provides totals for the number of handles, threads, and processes currently running. A process is
• a single executable program. A thread is an object within a process that runs program instructions. A handle represents a specific input/output (I/O) instance. A process may have multiple threads, each of which in turn may have multiple handles.

Using Resource Monitor
On the Performance tab of Task Manager, you will also notice a button named Resource Monitor (refer to Figure 19). Click this button (and enter your credentials when prompted by UAC) to open Resource Monitor, shown in Figure 20.

The Resource Monitor window is divided into several sections:

• Resource Overview. This section shows graphs that are identical to those shown in the Task Manager Performance tab.
• CPU. This section lists processes that are consuming CPU cycles, much like the Processes tab in Task Manager.
• Disk. This section shows in real time what processes are reading and writing to disk.
• Network. This section shows in real time what processes are sending and receiving on the network.
• Memory. This section shows in real time what processes are committed to memory.
• Learn More. This section features links to various
  information in Windows Help about monitoring resources.