How to Reset the Windows Experience Index (WEI) in Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8

   Information

The Windows Experience Index is a measurement that tells you how well your PC works with Windows and uses a base score to rate the experience you can expect. A higher base score usually means that your PC will be faster and more responsive than a PC with a lower base score.

Each piece of hardware in your PC gets its own score called a subscore. The total base score for your PC is determined by the lowest individual subscore, rather than an average of them all. You can view the subscores to see how the hardware you care most about is performing, which can help your decide whether to upgrade some parts of your PC.

This tutorial will show you how to reset the Windows Experience Index (WEI) as unrated in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. This way you can rate your computer WEI score again with a clean slate.

EXAMPLE: Windows Experience Index (WEI) with a Score

EXAMPLE: Windows Experience Index (WEI) Reset to Unrated

OPTION ONE

Reset WEI in Advanced Tools

NOTE: This option is not available in Windows 8.1. To completely reset WEI, you should do either Option Two or Option Three below since they delete all of the .xml files so you can start fresh again.

1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), then click\tap on Performance and Information Tools.

2. In the left pane, click\tap on the Advanced Tools link. (see screenshot below)

3. Click on the Clear all Windows Experience Index scores and re-rate the system link. (see screenshot below)

4. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes if administrator or enter the administrator's password if standard user.

5. The WEI score will now be reset, and the WEI tests will now run automatically to rate this computer for a new WEI score.

OPTION TWO

Reset WEI in an Elevated Command Prompt

1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste (or type) the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)

Code:

del /f %SYSTEMROOT%\Performance\WinSat\DataStore\*.xml

3. WEI has now been reset. You can now update your WEI score in Vista/Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 if you like.

OPTION THREE

Reset WEI Manually in Windows Explorer

1. Open Windows Explorer, and navigate to the location below.
NOTE: You can also "copy and paste" this location in the Start Menu search box and press enter to open directly to it.

C:\Windows\Performance\WinSat\DataStore

2. In the DataStore folder, select only all of the listed .xml files and delete them. (see screenshot below)

3. Close Windows Explorer.

4. WEI has now been reset. You can now update your WEI score in Vista/Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 if you like.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Update or Refresh the WEI Score in Windows 7
• How to Update or Refresh the WEI Score in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Create a Windows Experience Index Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Manually Change WEI Score in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable the Windows Experience Index in Vista and Windows 7