Windows 7 Starter Three App Limit Gone for Good
Windows 7 Starter Edition learns to count to more than three.
Last week we heard an interesting but unconfirmed claim from the WinSuperSite that said that Microsoft was dropping the three application limit from Windows 7 Starter Edition. Good news: it’s true.
Windows Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc confirmed the news with a post on the Windows blog, which read, “based on the feedback we’ve received from partners and customers asking us to enable a richer small notebook PC experience with Windows 7 Starter… We are also going to enable Windows 7 Starter customers the ability to run as many applications simultaneously as they would like, instead of being constricted to the 3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included.”
This does provide a significant upgrade to what most figured to be a cripped version of Windows 7. Now users will be free to run as many applications as their modest systems can afford to run.
What’s more, Microsoft said that, for the first time ever, it will be offering starter edition on small notebook PCs worldwide and not just in specific regions. That should help keep prices low in times where everyone is watching their wallets.
So what’s to keep Windows 7 Starter Edition from being the budget version that will do it all? Several things. Leblanc listed the following features that will NOT be a part of Starter Edition:
- 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.
- Personalization features for changing desktop backgrounds, window colors, or sound schemes.
- The ability to switch between users without having to log off.
- Multi-monitor support.
- DVD playback.
- Windows Media Center for watching recorded TV or other media.
- Remote Media Streaming for streaming your music, videos, and recorded TV from your home computer.
- Domain support for business customers.
- XP Mode for those that want the ability to run older Windows XP programs on Windows 7.
With the three application limit is gone, are the above ‘limitations’ still reason enough for you to upgrade your Windows 7 license?
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Add in DVD and tv play back with a bit of 3rd party software and it looks like you've got a decent system without the bloat.
There must be a whole load of other crap they wrote (IE) which they should take out too.
3rd party on a new desktop app and it's good to go.
I am always going to upgrade windows 7. It is called Ubuntu.
I never understood the artificial limitations like that, sell the product or don't sell it at all, don't criple things artificially, only makes users annoyed. (BluRay requirements to play anyone?)
Not only do I have in mind an improved OS to the above, but I am already running it : it's called Windows XP.
I was under the impression the Starter Edition wouldn't be sold in the UK, US or other developed countries, so how do this affect most Tom's hardware US or UK users?
"What’s more, Microsoft said that, for the first time ever, it will be offering starter edition on small notebook PCs worldwide and not just in specific regions."
Looks like it will be everywhere. Personally I feel Starter seems perfect for Netbooks and will come preloaded on very cheap end Notebooks. I can't see many people upgrading from a Netbook, but likely Notebooks will see some upgrade action.
As for anyone saying that XP is better... You're just not living in the real world. XP was great until about 2006 when the security holes because too well known and were not fixable by service packs. Vista had a rocky start but it almost never crashes (I've had one blue screen in 18 months of using it), it's UI is much improved, and most of all it is much much much more secure. Windows 7 adds lots of additional security and IMO will bring Microsoft back to the position of most secure OS, easily beating OSX which only just beats Vista.
If it will run games then I'll have to buy it.
@ukctstrider:
Oh yes, maybe I should learn to read. lol
XP is ridiculously outdated, anyone still supporting it is living in a dream world. If your PC isn't good enough, then I conceed, but, if you've downgraded a Windows 7/Vista capable machine to XP, you're losing efficiency AND compatibility. A lot of people don't realise that there is more to a PC than just the major components, and that WinXP doesn't take full advantage of the newest underlying technologies in major hardware components. Windows 7, on the other hand, will.
Windows 7 Starter sounds nice for the average user of netbooks, and maybe low end notebooks, but I'd never consider it for my PC. I'll be sticking with Ultimate for the more advanced features I can't live without.
@1st reply: IE as a standalone application can be uninstalled in Windows 7.