Copyright: ® Copyright 1995 CMP Publications, Inc.


Wintune '95 Help
Wintune 95 Help

Wintunes help system is divided into separate sections, one for each of the major subsystems that Wintune tests. The help topics in this section give you an overview of Wintunes interface. For questions on a particular item reported by Wintune, right-click on the item in Wintune's Summary or Details tab and select "Tell Me More".

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I use Wintune?

How do I save results?

What are the command line options?

Why don't I get any tips?

How do I send data to a spreadsheet?

Wintune User Interface

Summary Tab

Database Tab

Charts Tab

Reports Tab

Details Tab


FAQ: How do I use Wintune?

It depends on what you are trying to do. Using Wintune's database sorting, charts, reports, test details, and tips, you can perform many types of tuning and analysis. Heres a sampling of the situations where Wintune can be valuable, and how youd use it in each situation:

You want to speed up an existing system.

Install and run Wintune on the system, run the analysis, and examine any tips that it gives you. Read the help descriptions for the tips and see if you can resolve the problems.

You want to upgrade your video board.

Go to the Database tab. Select your own system (its usually selected already) and click the column headings to sort the database by that result. Select a few systems with the same CPU and clock speed as yours that have better results for video. Then click the Reports tab and select the Video report format. Youll see the details on the results and the name of the video board.

You want to decide between adding RAM or upgrading the CPU.

Go to the Database tab. Select your own system and then sort by Installed RAM. Select a few systems with the same RAM as yours but a faster CPU speed. Then select a few systems with more RAM but the same CPU speed as you currently have. Compare the results through charts or reports. (However, note that an upgrade CPU in an old system often wont provide performance as good as a system designed for a faster CPU.)


FAQ: What are the command line options?

Wintune offers a few options that you can use to change its behavior. Generally you don't need to use these unless you're doing something special like an automated demonstration or testing script. The easiest way to use the command line options is to create a shortcut to Wintune and then add the options in the Shortcut Properties after the file name in the Target entry. During installation, Wintune automatically places a shortcut on your Programs menu and you can change this one if you'd like.

When you create a new shortcut, or edit the existing one on your Programs menu, the Target entry will look something like this:

"C:\Program Files\Wintune95\Wintun95.exe"

The options described below should be placed after the file name, separated by spaces.

-D	Run Wintune in Demo mode. Wintune will automatically run the tests on this system and then step through its features. When running the Demo, Wintune will use whatever systems you have selected as comparison systems when it generates reports and graphs. You can turn Demo mode off by unchecking File/Run Demo on the menu.

-A	Automatic (no hands) operation. Run the tests (equivalent to clicking Analyze Now) and export the results into a file (equivalent to selecting File/Export Current). The file name will be the SYSID (which is generally unique) plus the extension WTX. Or, you can use the form "-A:filename" to automatically run tests and save into a specific file name of your choosing.

-P	Don't display the System Properties dialog if the system isn't in the database. (Normally, Wintune will display the dialog the first time you ever run it on the system; from then on it's in the database.) Useful when given in combination with the -A option.

-L	Turn on logging. This will generate status and progress messages to a log called WTLOG.TXT in the Wintune directory. Most often this is used for debugging Wintune itself.

Example: To run Wintune in Automatic mode and generate TEST.WTX, don't display the system properties dialog, and generate a debug log, the Target entry would look like:

"C:\Program Files\Wintune95\Wintun95.exe" -A:TEST.WTX -P -L


FAQ: How do I save results?

To save the results of testing you have just run, select File/Save Current from the menu. Wintune will prompt you with a dialog for Notes and the system description. Please fill in at least the system description.Click OK, and Wintune will save the results into the database. You can then select those results by clicking on them in the Database tab.

If you want to send the current results to another Wintune user, use the Export function. Select File/Export Current from the menu, and enter a file name. Wintune will save your results into a specially-formatted text file. You can send the file to another Wintune user and they can import it into their own database using the File/Import command.

You can export any set of results from the Database tab. Left-click the results you want to export, then right-click the last one and choose Export Selected from the menu. The file you create is an ASCII file that you can send to another Wintune user.


FAQ: Why don't I get any tips?
FAQ: Why dont I get any tips?

Wintune gives tips when it detects something you can do to improve performance. If a system is properly configured and running at or near the norm for its class, then you wont get any tips. This is good news; it means the system doesnt have any big problems.

On just about any system, it is still possible to improve performance in these cases by purchasing a faster hard disk, disk controller, video board, or OverDrive CPU. However, it may not be cost-effective to upgrade an older system in this way versus purchasing an all-new system. These cost-benefit tradeoffs depend on your budget.

There are also things that Wintune just cannot detect. For example, some systems have a turbo switch that toggles between a 25MHz and a 33MHz clock rate. If the switch is set at 25MHz, Wintune does not know that the higher 33MHz setting is available. It simply judges the systems performance based on the 25MHz level. Similarly, your system may have a secondary (level 2) cache thats turned off, but Wintune cannot determine the difference between systems that just dont have a secondary cache at all (common on low-end systems) and those that have a secondary cache that isnt enabled.

By comparing your results to similar systems in the database, you can get an idea of whether your system is performing above or below the level you expect. You can also browse through the information in Wintune's help files to see if any of the tips and descriptions match your expectations about your system's performance.


FAQ: How do I send data to a spreadsheet?

Let's say you want to do a fancier report, or create your own custom graphs from Wintune's data. You can send the data to a spreadsheet or other application and do whatever you want with it. This works with either the Database tab or the Reports tab.

1) 	Select the report you want to use. This can either be the Database tab or a report in the Reports tab. (Hint: the "All Details" report in the Reports tab includes all the information that Wintune keeps for each system.)

2) 	From Wintune's menu, select Edit/Copy.

3) 	Run the application that you want to receive the data, for example Excel.

4) 	From that application's menu, select Edit/Paste.

If you plan to do numeric analysis on the results, you will want to eliminate the non-numeric characters in cells. These are typically the units, such as "MB/s". Most spreadsheets have a search-and-replace function that can easily do this.  In Excel, for example, you can use Edit/Replace to change all occurrences of MB/s to nothing. If you need to do this often, assign the whole operation (Edit/Paste, Edit/Replace, and any other data conditioning such as removing rows) to an Excel macro.


Summary Tab

Provides an overview of the system configuration, results, and tips for this system.

To get this:	Do this:

Run tests and generate tips	Click the Analyze Now button

Quick description of an item	Click the item

Detailed help on an item	Double-click the item


Database Tab

Lets you view the database of results from other systems and test runs that youve saved from this system. Systems that are highlighted in the database list are used when you generate charts and reports. The order in which you sort the database entries determines the order in the charts and reports.

To get this:	Do this:

Sort by specific result	Click on the results column heading

Resize a column	Drag mouse between column headings

Select a system	Click the item

Get a menu of options	Right-click the item

Change Notes on a system	Right-click, select Properties

Clear all selections	Right-click, select Deselect All

Copy selection to clipboard	Select Edit/Copy or type Ctrl+C

The option of copying the selected systems to the clipboard is useful if you want to include the summary data in an email message, or you want to do further analysis in a spreadsheet package.

See also:

FAQ: How do I send data to a spreadsheet?


Charts Tab

Lets you view and compare results in graphical format. Results are charted for all the systems that you've selected in the Database tab.

To get this:	Do this:

Select results to chart	Click the drop-down list above the chart

Change comparison systems	Click the Database tab

Print the chart	Select File/Print


Reports Tab

Lets you view and compare results in text format. The report includes all the systems that you've selected in the Database tab.

To get this:	Do this:

Resize a column	Drag mouse between column headings

Select results to chart	Click the drop-down list above the chart

Change comparison systems	Click the Database tab

Print the report	Select File/Print

Copy report to clipboard	Select Edit/Copy or type Ctrl+C

The option of copying the report to the clipboard is useful if you want to do further analysis or your own custom report in a spreadsheet or word processor.

See also:

FAQ: How do I send data to a spreadsheet?


Details tab

Displays, in a tree format, all of the results and tips for the system currently being tested.

To get this:	Do this:

Change the Notes or Brand	Right-click System, select Properties

View details on a disk	Click the + next to the disk

Help on an item	Right-click the item, select Tell Me More

Move through tree	Press the up/down arrow keys

Move through subtrees	Press the right/left arrow keys