14 DAY TRIAL // With the advent of Windows 7, the Starter edition of the Windows client will shake off its handicaps, Microsoft has confirmed. With releases such as Windows XP and Windows Vista, the Redmond company limited the Starter SKU both in regard to geographical availability as well as in relation to the actual capabilities. But Windows 7 Starter will no longer be a flavor of Windows reserved for third-world markets and entry-level PCs. Instead, the most basic of Windows 7 editions will be tailored to netbooks (small notebook PCs) and will be offered worldwide. At the same time, Windows 7 Starter will no longer be restricted to running just three concurrent applications, not counting background processes (security solutions, apps dealing with wireless and Bluetooth, and system tools).
“For the first time, we will be making Windows 7 Starter available worldwide on small notebook PCs. 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,” explained Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team. “We believe these changes will make Windows 7 Starter an even more attractive option for customers who want a small notebook PC for very basic tasks, like browsing the web, checking email and personal productivity.”
At the same time it is important to note that Windows 7 Starter remains the most feature-poor edition of the operating system, at the opposite pole from the Ultimate SKU. Users turning to Starter will only be able to enjoy a subset of Windows 7 goodies, without some of the trademark features that define Windows Vista's successor. The Starter edition will not include Aero Glass, or any of the associated eye-candy such as Taskbar Previews and Aero Peek. Users will be limited when it comes down to personalizing their computers, because Starter will not come with “personalization features for backgrounds, window colors, or sound schemes. Starter will also do without multi-monitor support, DVD playback, Windows Media Center, Remote Media Streaming, domain support, and XP Mode,” LeBlanc revealed.
Still, Microsoft stressed that Windows 7 Starter should not be considered a netbook edition of the platform. The Redmond company pointed out, since the official announcement of the Windows 7 Stock Keeping Unit strategy earlier this year, that all editions of the operating system were designed to play nice with netbooks.
32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 (Release Candidate) RC Build 7100.0.090421-1700 is available for download here.