The Windows 7 stater

What is Windows 7 Starter?
Well, it might be easiest to say what it isn't—and that is Windows 7 Home Premium, but without the additional multimedia features such as the Aero Glass GUI.



Here's how Microsoft describes the differences: "Customers who have only basic computing requirements can choose Windows 7 Starter Edition. However, customers interested in getting the most complete consumer experience from their small notebook PC investment will want to consider Windows 7 Home Premium, which offers richer multimedia capabilities and visual enhancements, if their netbook has sufficient hardware. However, Windows 7 was designed in a way that any edition of the OS should be able to run on small notebook PCs with sufficient hardware."

And you won't be able to buy the Starter edition at retail, either, although retailers like NewEgg have traditionally sold OEM copies, as it did with Vista.

Hang on a second. Any edition of Windows 7 can be run on a netbook?
With "sufficient hardware." At this point, it's not known whether Microsoft is being deliberately obtuse, or the Windows 7 operating system is compartmentalized enough that even more advanced versions will tailor themselves to the hardware.

"We've invested significantly in engineering efforts around improving performance, reliability, and compatibility in Windows 7," Microsoft says. "These improvements apply to all Windows 7 SKUs. A great example is watching even the full-featured Windows 7 Ultimate running well on small notebook PCs that have sufficient hardware."

Is there a minimum specification for Windows 7 Starter?
Not really. There is a minimum recommendation for the Windows 7 beta:
A 1-GHz, 32-bit, or 64-bit processor
1GB or more system memory
16GB or more available disk space
Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB or more memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
DVD-R/W Drive
Internet Access

Aside from that, however, there aren't any published requirements for Windows 7 Starter. There is one important caveat, however: Windows 7 Starter is the only Windows 7 version not to have a 64-bit option. All of the other versions come in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

Sounds great. A cheap Windows 7 without Aero Glass? What am I missing?
Here's the catch: you'll be limited to running three concurrent applications; so, for example, Word, Internet Explorer, and Peggle. According to Microsoft, you'll be able to run services (such as Windows Defender) in the background, although calling them up with three applications already running will probably generate some form of a nagware error message.

You also won't receive the "easy networking" features that Home Premium will offer, or the multimedia codecs that Home Premium will include. Home networking still isn't easy, so we're not sure what users will miss there.

So which netbooks will come preloaded with Windows 7 Starter, and which will receive Home Premium?
That's up to the OEM. If there are any secret hardware requirements, Microsoft isn't divulging them, and it says that any negotiations between itself and its OEMs are confidential.