Longhorn's Secret Modder Surprises

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With the Beta 1 release of Longhorn now just weeks away, it is time to start talking about two little-known features that will particularly appeal to modders and power gamers. These are good signs that Microsoft is getting serious about these audiences; they demonstrate the broad positive impact of actually having game developers on Microsoft's staff.

The first and most comprehensive of the two features is a tool called the Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSat). This is essentially a benchmarking tool designed into Windows, which generates scores based on system performance. It will analyze the graphics subsystem, the processor, the memory, the hard drive and other critical components of the system and calculate a total score. This score can be used to compare your system performance to that of any other Longhorn system.

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