Winsat

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

winsat assesses various features, capabilities, and attributes of a computer running Windows Vista®.

Syntax

winsat <assessment name> <assessment parameters>

Assessment	Description
winsat dwm	Assesses the ability of a system to display the Aero desktop effects.
winsat d3d	Assesses the ability of a system to run Direct 3D applications, such as games.
winsat mem	Assesses system memory bandwidth by simulating large memory to memory buffer copies.
winsat disk	Assesses the performance of disk drives.
winsat cpu	Assesses the performance of the CPU(s).
winsat media	Assesses the performance of video encoding and decoding (playback) using the Direct Show framework.
winsat mfmedia	Assesses the performance of video decoding (playback) using the Media Foundation framework.
winsat features	Enumerates relevant system information.
winsat formal	Runs a set of pre-defined assessments and saves the data in an XML file in %systemroot%\performance\winsat\datastore.

Please review the parameters for an assessment before running it. Assessment parameters are required for accurate testing.

Warning

Running an assessment without parameters may result in system performance problems or system instability.

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to use winsat. The command must be executed from an elevated command prompt window.
To open an elevated command prompt window, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and click Run as administrator.