Microsoft to improve Windows Vista PC rating tool

The critique is that the current version of the Windows System Performance Rating feature could be "misleading," Brad Goldberg, general manager for Windows at Microsoft, said in an interview at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here.

The feature first appeared in a recent Vista preview release and is designed to help consumers when they first buy a PC and to determine which software and hardware works with a system. It looks at the processor, hard disk drive, memory and graphics capabilities and gives each a score, as well as a prominently displayed overall score.