Netbook Users Unhappy with Windows 7 Starter?

Andrew Cunningham | Nov 10, 2009 | Comments

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A recent survey run by consumer electronics site Retrevo suggests that consumers may be shying away from netbooks running Windows 7 Starter Edition, the lowliest of the many editions on Windows 7’s totem pole.

Retrevo’s survey asked 1,100 “users” if they were planning to buy a netbook this year. Of the 21% who responded “yes” a little over half said that they would be “unsatisfied” with a netbook running Windows 7 Starter, based on lack of features such as “Multi-monitor Support, Desktop Personalization, DVD Playback” and others.

First, I’ll point out why this survey might not be as big a deal as the Internet news mill is making it out to be: Most significantly, this survey is pretty unscientific, identifying the participants only as Retrevo.com “users” with no other data given about the sample or the margin of error. I contacted Retrevo for comment about this and will update you if I get a response.

It should also be said that DVD playback is not included in Windows XP without the use of third-party codecs, which I assume can just as easily be added to Windows 7 Starter.

Having leveled those criticisms, their main point stands – Windows 7 Starter Edition is just a little too neutered, not including Aero or something as simple as the ability to change the desktop wallpaper. I don’t think that Microsoft is trying to kill the netbook market, as the Retrevo piece suggests, but I do think that Microsoft is trying to have its cake and eat it too – offering a low-priced cut-rate edition of Windows to maintain its dominance over Linux in the netbook market, but removing just enough significant features that a large percentage of users will be tempted to cough up the $80 that it costs to do an in-place upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments section.

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Filed Under: Windows 7 Hardware • Windows 7 News • Windows 7 Software

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About the Author: Andrew Cunningham is a rarity - an IT professional with a liberal arts degree. Please don't hold that against him. When he's not supporting the faculty and staff of Kenyon College, he's writing about games, music and movies at his other blog, Charge Shot!!!

  • chieftain20
    Well if I'm getting a netbook for $300, I don't expect it to do what my $800 laptop does, just basic email checking, and probably some Office '03 work. But not having Windows Aero, and being unable to change my background would make me want to upgrade to the Home Premium, or do a re-install of XP back onto it (imaging the hard drive first, in-case I need to undo the install).

    But as I said before I wouldn't expect my netbook to do all things I'd ever want it to do, just VERY simple things. That's the only plus to having a 2.5lb 7" netbook vs a 7.5lb 15.4" gaming laptop. It'd be cool to have one that has a high performance SSD that can stay on for like 9 hours. And it'd be great for running torrents all the time, low power consumption.
  • Forrest
    For $300 I would expect the full windows experience. $300 is not as cheap as they want to you to think it is. I would expect a sup-windows experience on a netbook for $150 -$175, not $300, $300 is almost a full computer in my mind and better have all the full computer features and run like one. Until netbooks are $150 then windows 7 starter should not exist.
    my 2 cent :)
  • chieftain20
    That would be sweet if they were that cheap. But even $200 I would get one with starter, and probably use one of my copies to upgrade to the full W7. Most likely Home Premium since I wouldn't really use the other features of higher versions on a netbook.
  • Henry Leatham
    I think it's completely ridiculous. I personally have an EEE PC 1000HD With Windows 7 Ultimate installed, it runs as well as it did on XP and I've had no problems with it. Companies shouldn't limit their products with Starter. Windows 7 Starter is another name for Windows 7 Fail.
  • Chris
    There is absolutely no reason to have starter preinstalled on netbooks, i'm running windows 7 professional on my netbook and it runs great
  • I suppose the difference is between buying a netbook for $300 that has Windows 7 Starter, or paying $380 for a netbook with Windows 7 Home Premium. Aero and desktop wallpapers doesn't really affect the functionality of the OS. It will still be able to open Internet Explorer or any other browser you want. So why not save the extra $80 if you don't really need the more advanced features?

    Of course, I personally would want at least Home Premium for the Media Center software.
  • Gabriel Ortiz
    Think about it: a netbook is for those internet surfers, and on-the-go people who don't need all the extra functionality of a laptop or PC. So netbook users should not expect the "cool" features of Home Premium to be included in their new netbooks. I guess it's just logical. Want better features? Spend $80 more or buy a laptop.
  • Mohammed
    I don't think that it's going to be windows 7 fail in case of putting window 7 starter on netbooks. However, Microsoft puts its self in the safe side by putting this edition on netbooks, because of netbooks limitations.

    Just think about it, people who need these machines for limited functions, they don't want to spend more money on more features that they don't want.

    Finally, in my opinion, the performance of Windows 7 on a netbook would be as the same as the performance of Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on a powerful notebook.
  • I'm not astonished to see that people are not happy with Windows 7 starter !
    Who would be happy with an OS that can launch only 3 windows at a time ?
  • Radiowriter
    I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium on an hp Mini. Due to the RAM limitations of the machine (2 GB max), I've decided to run with the Windows Classic theme. I also have a Dell Inspiron running Win 7 Pro and I've got all the candy I want there. With my netbook, I want it to work fast and on less resources to conserve battery.
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