The performance Index is another great feature of Vista. It is annoying too, because many of the soft wares and games are programmed not to get installed when the performance index is below a particular range. Even if you can install software some of the “advanced” features are disabled. If you want to enable these features you have to do a hardware upgrade for your system. Here is how to “simulate” a higher performance Index for Vista so that you can play your favorite games and use applications without a hardware upgrade. You can also use this to enable Aero because Aero did not function if your system has a low Performance Index.
First make sure you have logged in with administrative privileges.
Navigate to: C:/Windows/Perfromance/Winsat/DataStore.
Now select “All Documents” in the combination field for data types. Here you can see a list of XML file reports for every Performance Index test you have conducted so far. Open the most recent one and change the value between the lines 14-21 to a higher value between 4-5.9 and then save the file.
Note: Do not conduct another performance test because this will change the performance index back to the original. But even if you can manipulate the Performance Index you cannot improve the performance of your system. Moreover, your system may be slower that before just because the hardware is not actually compatible. So activating Aero for a system with low Performance Index is not recommended.
