Windows 7 Starter Edition - WTF?!

[Luke122]

We just pulled a new EEEPC 1005HA netbook out to show to a customer, and we didnt make the sale. Why?

YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE WALLPAPER IN WINDOWS 7 STARTER EDITION.

No seriously, I'm looking into it, because that seems WAY too f*cking stupid to me. Apple will have a field day with this.

[Luke122]

OK, I've found a few ways around this, but OMG.. what a pain in the ass.

[Xpirate]

How did you do it?

[Trace]

You have to be kidding me?!
Please post how.

[progbuddy]

We just pulled a new EEEPC 1005HA netbook out to show to a customer, and we didnt make the sale. Why?

YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE WALLPAPER IN WINDOWS 7 STARTER EDITION.

No seriously, I'm looking into it, because that seems WAY too f*cking stupid to me. Apple will have a field day with this.

Steps to fix this problem.
1.) Kill Windows, claim victory.
2.) Put Ubuntu 9.10 on it.
3.) Change desktop background.

[x88x]

If 7 Starter is like Vista Starter, it also won't let you run more than 3 programs at a time. Doesn't care how many instances of each program you're running, just can't run more than 3. It really amazes me that MS suddenly started selling Starter to normal consumers. It used to be that it was only sold on embedded systems and in developing countries (due to the lower resource load, I guess).

[Zephik]

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/win...7-starter.aspx

[Luke122]

No, apparently they removed the 3 app limit, after the incredible consumer backlash. Instead, they removed the ability to customize the user interface.

2 workarounds that I have found:

1. The Asus System Customization Utility included on the device (or available to download from Asus Support) will allow you to replace the wallpaper with one of your own choosing. They apparently addressed this limitation themselves. Go Asus!

2. Samuraize. I found a video "how-to" on Youtube explaining how to use Samuraize to "skin" the desktop with an image of your choice.

[x88x]

I can understand all the other stuff they took out, but really MS? Taking out the ability to change the background? What benefit could that possibly serve?

[Zephik]

It doesn't make any sense at all. There is no way that cutting out the background customization option drops the price of the OS enough so that netbook manufacturers can get Windows 7 without paying full price. Its almost like they did it just to piss people off and for no other reason. I mean really, out of EVERYTHING in Windows 7, you could only think of taking away the option to change the background to "water-down" the OS? I just don't get it. I really don't. Maybe they just thought "well, we could take away this, but would people really care? Probably not. But if we take away the basics like this... that'll inspire people to spend more!". That is the only explanation that I can think of...