Windows 7 Starter vs. Home Premium (for netbooks)

Besides the cosmetic restrictions, is Windows 7 Starter crippled in any way? Is there any performance advantage on a netbook running Home Premium instead of Starter?

Has anyone here installed Home Premium on an N270/GMA950 or N450/GMA3150 netbook?

 

The main things Starter is missing are the Aero interface ("glass" appearance, taskbar thumbnails, and Flip 3D) and Media Center. Oh yeah and there's no 64-bit Starter... which means usable RAM is effectively limited to around 3-3.5 GB, depending on your system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions

 

No, but my friend has Ultimate on his Acer Aspire One (N270, GMA 950, 1GB), and it runs nicely. Windows animation isn't quite as smooth as the animation on my laptop with the 3650, but overall it's still quite nice.

Starter is crippled in just about every way possible, you can't even change the desktop background. Plus, there are multitudes of features in Ultimate and even Home Premium that Starter doesn't have.

As you can see from the chart in the link in the previous post, Windows 7 Starter is VERY limited. It has close to no features, and for me personally, it would be painful to use. I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me.

 

If you are a power user, i would recommend either Home Premium or Professional (If you need to connect to server domain or similar), but for basic usage and web browsing Windows 7 Starter should be okay for the average user.
And it is possible to change the wallpaper in Win 7 Starter, but you need Stardock MyColors for it to work. xD

 

If it was a choice between the same low end to midrange netbook with XP Home or one with 7 Starter, I'd pick the XP system six ways to Sunday. It's a shame that MS had to throw in the "non changing" wallpaper restriction along with all the other restrictions 7 starter has. What's really annoying is that many makers aren't offering the option to move up to HP or Pro when you are configuring online, at least for their low end to midrange netbook offerings. :/

 

Starter is a definite "Do Not Buy". It's missing Aero, has crippled system tools, and you can't even change the wallpaper. It's the cheapest W7, and you definitely feel it.

 

dont they put windows starter to limit the resource hog of the higher level versions of windows on netbooks ... so at the end it is suppose to benefit your experience on the netbook

Stardock MyColors -> Minimum screen resolution: 1024 width and 768 height
on my toshiba netbook .. 1024 x 600 .. will it still work??? i didnt even see prices yet on stardock

is there anyways to change wallpaper and login screen background for free?
free option to change wallpaper
Change logon screen background

 

I've used the RC and the final Win 7 Pro on an EEE PC 1000HE, the Aero interface can lag a little sometimes but I like Win7 a lot more than XP for netbooks. I'd stay away from the Starter version, though, for sure.

 

so its def worth the $80 to upgrade to home edition ..?

 

I put Win 7 Home Premium on my daughter's net book - upgraded the ram to 2GB and it runs nicely (Asus Eee pc). I've seen the starter edition, would not recommend it either like folks above have mentioned.

 

That's what Microsoft want you to do. I rather object to them restricting an O/S just to make more money from upgrades. If you can live with XP or 7starter that's probably better value.

 

Shame they don't offer Windows 7 Basic in developed countries, because that could have been the perfect windows version for netbooks.

 

My personal preference is 2GB Ram in a netbook and Win7, the money spent at the outset will get you a nice computing experience. I just find Win7 more pleasant to use than XP, but I'd still pick XP over Win7 starter.