[smexxy]

Most new netbooks come with Windows 7 Starter. The only features that are restricted that I know of are inability to change desktop background, and no aero theme (is that the transparent GUI introduced in Vista?) Did they restrict system performance at all? That's really all that matters to me, since desktop background can be changed with 3rd party software.

Why did they make the Starter version in the first place? Are there more unavailable features that I'm not aware of? Couldn't it just ship with Home Premium? Paying $120 for desktop change and aero theme seems like a big waste of money IMO.

[Mumbodog]

Why did they make the Starter version in the first place?

So PC manufacturers could sell under powered low priced PCs

Most all PCs sold with starter edition cannot run Home premium or higher due to memory upgrade limitations, most are limited to 1gb ram, and you will need 1.5 - 3 gb ram to run Home premium or Pro.

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[DoubleHelix]

Originally Posted by Mumbodog

So PC manufacturers could sell under powered low priced PCs

Most all PCs sold with starter edition cannot run Home premium or higher due to memory upgrade limitations, most are limited to 1gb ram, and you will need 1.5 - 3 gb ram to run Home premium or Pro.

.

That's absolutely not true. Starter Edition is cheaper. It's sold with netbooks to keep costs down. It has nothing to do with system requirements. Start and Home Premium have the same minimum requirements. All new netbooks are sold with 1GB of RAM and can be upgraded to 2GB.

I run Windows 7 Home Premium on my netbook and find it to be quicker than Windows XP was. That's not my rose-colored glasses perception. The actual architecture of Windows 7 is much improved and can automatically adjust to run optimally on both low end and high end systems. That's something Windows XP couldn't do.

[Mumbodog]

All new netbooks are sold with 1GB of RAM and can be upgraded to 2GB.

Not true.

Respectfully disagree.

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[DoubleHelix]

What models are you looking at that don't come with 1GB of RAM and can't be upgraded?

[DoubleHelix]

Here's Microsoft's link on Windows 7 Starter.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...oducts/compare

If you click on the "What does it take to run Windows 7 link", you'll be taken to the page that lists system requirements which include a minimum of 1GB of RAM.