Criticism of Windows Vista including Photoshop and WinRAR, also performed worse under Vista. Many low-to-mid-end machines that come with Windows Vista pre-installed suffer from exceptionally slow performance with the default Vista settings that come pre-loaded, and laptop manufacturers have offered to "downgrade" laptops to Windows XP—for a price. However, this "price" is unnecessary, as Microsoft allows users of Windows Vista and Windows 7 to freely "downgrade" their software by installing XP and then phoning a Microsoft representative for a new product key. When first released in November 2006, Vista performed file operations such as copying and deletion more slowly than other operating systems. Large
Windows System Assessment Tool method of displaying system requirements on retail packaging for Windows games with a rating system that would categorize games based on a numerical system. In 2004, Lester expanded further on Microsoft's intentions by stating that the company would work with hardware manufacturers to create PCs for Windows Vista that used a "level system" to designate the performance and capabilities of a system's hardware and that Xbox 360 peripherals would be fully compatible with the operating system. The Windows Experience Index feature in Windows Vista relies on measurements taken with WinSAT to provide an accurate assessment of a system's capabilities—these capabilities