Windows 7 Starter Three App Limit Gone for Good

Microsoft listening? THAT'S A NEW ONE.

Lack of Multi monitor support is the killer in that list. I always use two monitors on my desktops. And any laptop I get in the future I will want to be able to use it to play movies on my TV's.

I'm suprised they don't let you change the background image. I could see more people bitching about that then the 3 app limit.

Changing the background will be possible from within Dos, find background file, rename and replace with new file giving it same name!

as much as i do like windows 7 (running the RC) i'd prefer linux on a netbook. and an SSD.

The personalization features are pretty cool and, after using Aero Glass, I don't think I want to go back. However, as apmyhr noted above, the lack of multi monitor support is not acceptable.

Being unable to watch a DVD will make systems with this OS useless for traveling users.
Will it be able to stream media from web sites?

I can understand the fact that win7 starter will not support some features, but I wouldn't accept to have such a restriction for something I paid for! It's more like punishment because I bought starter edition! It's a good think they withdraw it.

Good point about VLC, but that may not work for Joe Salesman. It will be interesting to see how Microsquishy's marketing addresses this; recommend a third-party product in order to sell crippled netbooks, or try to recommend pricier machines that on a large scale may break corporate budgets.

On the whole, far more reasonable. At first I thought the lack of DVD playback would be bad but then, this is aimed at Netbooks that don't even have a DVD drive and any machine that does come with a drive won't come with Starter Edition. The only thing that strikes me as plain mean and silly is not being able to change your background image. I mean, come on!

Not being able to change your background image is a little odd... As much as people will HATE this it would not be enough to force them into purchasing a more expensive OS.

"OH LOOK! $40 more i can get Win7 Home that allows me to change my desktop image"
I cannot see a lot of people doing this.

In answer to the question of the article:

Yes. No DVD playback? No personalization (not even on par with Windows 95)? No ability to "peak" at unopen windows? All of those are things I've learned to live with, and want. Having an OS so very crippled makes me think that Home Basic would be better for people like my parents, who just surf the web and email, and occasionally do some media-centric tasks, and Home Premium would be better for me.

Of course, I'm getting Ultimate anyway.

The background desktop image on Windows 7 starter will be an ad for upgrading from the starter version... that's why MS won't let you change it.

I'm not writing about starter edition. I'm writing about XPM. M$ makes it sound like they are giving a free version of XP with the upper SKU's. I wonder if this free version of XP can be installed as a stand alone and be truly free. I'm guessing not.

M$ is attempting a new practice of using compatibility to sale their different versions. XP and before all SKU's had about the same backwards compatibility. Without XPM Home versions will have to wait for 3rd party emulation software which may take upto 3 years.

Whats next? Driver limits making it impossible to use anything beyond integrated graphics on anything but ultimate edition.

M$ want a higher price for their OS and without old XP software many more users may migrate to linux. I may revisit the ideal of buying win7 home in 2~3 years when 3rd party emulation may allow my old software.

Whelp, they have to give people just enough so that they don't switch over to a Linux Netbook. Even though I'm not big on netbooks ^_^, if I had one I would prefer to run Linux on it than Windows myself.

Why the background thing? That is just ODD.

Ok,my 2ct on netbooks and the limitations set by MS:

* Aero Glass, meaning you can only use the “Windows Basic” or other opaque themes. It also means you do not get Taskbar Previews or Aero Peek.
-> Makes sense. Netbooks are not graphical monsters.

* Personalization features for changing desktop backgrounds, window colors, or sound schemes.
->Does NOT make sense! What if I want the plain win98/NT/2000/ME looks? What if I don't like windows sounds at all, and want to disable it?
What if I want a black background and don't want a custom picture?
This sucks!

* The ability to switch between users without having to log off.
-> Makes sense, netbooks are no desktops or servers with many people logging on or off. Saves resources to only be able to log 1 person on at the time.
* Multi-monitor support.
-> I hope that external monitor is included! Netbooks generally could benefit from their external monitor (eg: netbook 1024x600 screen for program controls, while the external LCD screen might be good for movies or main program screen). I hope that a '1 screen at a time' rule will not result in the inability to use the external monitor/TV/screen!

* DVD playback.
-> Mini netbooks don't have DVD's generally. But it's a rule that only bugs a minority of people. I'd rather if they would disable blueray than DVD. But in most cases people won't use netbooks to watch DVD's. If they want to use them they would encode their DVD's to a DivX/XViD/Mpeg4 file,and play that back, since it uses less battery; or use their laptop/desktop to view DVD's.

* Windows Media Center for watching recorded TV or other media.
-> Only a very small set of people will be affected. The only thing I can object here is for people who bought a Box pc like the EeeBox or Windbox, to use as HD center. They would probably mind this a lot, or go XP.

* Remote Media Streaming for streaming your music, videos, and recorded TV from your home computer.
-> Is ok, a netbook is no server.

* Domain support for business customers.
-> A business generally has more money for their netbooks and probably will buy a win7 upgrade.

* XP Mode for those that want the ability to run older Windows XP
programs on Windows 7.
-> Makes sense. XP virtualized on netbooks is not very common. Especially if the netbooks are only equipped with 1 GB of RAM and an Atom processor.

Things they could improve on:
There are many services that no longer make any sense, like 'telnet', to connect to the internet via a modem.

It would probably also make more sense to equip netbooks with an installation CD that installs everything, and disable any system restore.
System restore takes a big toll on netbooks with SSD.

Limit defrag and scandisk to one disk at a time...
For me, I never use these functions anyways.

That would probably be good enough for mini netbooks.

not long ago everyone was bitchin' about the 3 app limitation. now it's the background, the dvd, and whatnot.. People, this is THE STARTER EDITION. It's not meant to be a full fledged OS. If you want all of that functionality, buy the Home Premium, or the other packages.

Anyway, kudos to MS for listening.

I have to think people are correct in that no-DVD support means no Windows Media Player DVD playback. Programs like Cyberlink PowerDVD use their own DVD decoders, and I think they would still work assuming your computer had a DVD drive. Seriously, has anyone ever bought a retail-packaged DVD drive that didn't come with DVD-player software?

DVD=KLMCP

Hopefully Starter will be available separatly for OEM desktops too then.

I mean, paying less for the priviliege of not having to manually strip out a lot of absolutely useless - and resource-hnungry - features?

What's not to like.

Of course, if there end up being a hardware "ceiling" for what Starter runs on - as has been implied in previous articles - I guess I'm screwed anyway.

TBH, I'd pay more for less - as long as "less" means a leaner windows installation.

The only thing I'd lack from the feautures mentioned would be the customization options - though if I still get the option of "no sounds" and a solid black background that's more than enough for me.

Could someone please remind me, what is the point of Starter Edition again? Microsoft didn't have any spend any more money to develop it if it's just a normal installation that forgoes installing some features. If that is the case, wouldn't it make so much more sense to just sell the 'normal' version of Win7 and allow customers to customize the installation to make it smaller, removing features they didn't need? Wouldn't that have been so much easier and so much more ethical? I honestly don't understand why this isn't a feature for every Windows installation. It would take all of a few minutes (obviously an exaggeration) to add the menu and selections to the installation routine.

Its mainly for emerging markets and netbooks. Its perfect for that. Its just the fact that people can't change backgrounds. People in emerging markets will surely like to do that. Bit stingy.

Re: Chuck Norris

You're quite right, ideally the 'higher tier' installations should be customizable and allow for skipping a lot of the content and functionality if the user so wishes. Unfortunately, this has never really been Microsofts policy on windows releases and thus certain groups of 'power-users' are forced to rely on third party tools to get the kind of installation they want.

Windows 7 take a few, very minor, steps toward changing that with the ability to remove certain componenets - such as IE 8 - after installation. Unfortunately, it still keeps the compressed versions on disk and generally includes even more chaff and needless services than previous editions do.

Still, the RC version out there for testing is the Ultimate version and hopefully using the Home Basic or Starter version would allow for a significantly leaner system.

Now I only wish they'd drop the non-64 bit versions of the OS. After all, we'll never seen any significant amount of 64-bit software as long as developers can stick to releasing just one version (32-bit) that'll work on all versions of windows from 2k onwards.

that starter edition still looks like shit. not even DVD playback? REALLY???

Damn... Microsoft is actually listening?

I don't understand something. Why would you put out an OS geared towards business users and then not include multi-monitor support? Wouldn't business people want to use their netbooks for presentations? I think I may have missed something somewhere...