Merry Christmas!!!! 
Looks like someone loves you if they bought you a netbook! I’m going to go over a few things we think you might want to know about having a netbook: The limitations of Windows 7 Starter Edition, its not your netbook that’s stopping you, its your operating system!; Suggestions on Getting around Windows 7 limitations; Jolicloud – A free operating system that you’ll love and finally, Antivirus & Security.
These are just a few of the basics we thought you’d like to know about for your new machine!!
Windows 7 Starter Edition – What you can’t do with it!!!
The first thing you should know is your netbook probably has Windows 7 Starter Edition, pretty much all netbooks comes with this crippled version of this great operating system. Unless you’ve made special arrangements to get it or there is something very special about your netbook, its got Starter Edition. Here is a list of things that this version of the Windows 7 operating system won’t let you do.
No Desktop Personalization
Got a picture of you and the family on vacation that you might want to use as the background on the desktop? Not going to happen with Starter Edition, you’re stuck with that wonderful Microsoft background. Keep reading below and you’ll see a little program that you can use to get around this called Windows Blinds.
No DVD Playback
Yes, we know netbooks don’t have built-in DVD drives but you can get an external USB DVD drive for around $50. Unfortunately Windows 7 Starter Edition won’t allow you to play DVDs even on an external drive.
No Multi-Monitor Support
Netbooks are great for taking on the road to access the Internet but there are times when you might want to hook up a second monitor. Yes, Windows 7 Starter Edition will “mirror,” whatever is on the screen of your netbook on the second monitor but it won’t allow you to have a different display on each one, extending your desktop. Keep on reading below, MaxiVista is a great little program for getting around this limitation.
No Aero
It’s not as if netbooks don’t have the graphics power to run Aero, it’s just that Microsoft decided all the cool interface components on Aero including the new Aero Peek and Aero Snap are disabled in Windows 7 Starter. This is one of the things that people often see and think that its the netbooks low power processor that is the culprit, but really its just that they are trying to put down the netbook market because they aren’t making enough money off these computers for the people!!
The List Goes On
That was some of the more glaring omissions from Windows 7 Starter Editions. Here are a few more
No Multi-Touch
No Premium Games
No Windows Media Center
Presentation Mode
Windows XP Mode
There is a good chance that if you are a basic user and you are using this as a secondary on the road pc, down at the coffee shop then you might not even notice. But these are some pretty big limitations and if you want to upgrade then upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, which is probably what most consumers will do and its only $80 to do the upgrade.
How to get Around a Few Windows 7 Starter Limitations
If the only thing that bugs you is that you can’t change the background, well, the here is a program that will let you skin your desktop so you can get every background you’d ever want. The program is called Windows Blinds, take a look at the website here. The only draw back, its not free, but then again windows 7 hasn’t been around that long, so we’ll keep an eye out for a free version, this one will be $20, but cheaper then the $80 upgrade to windows home premium.
The second program that I like for getting around extended monitor is MaxiVista. It turns any spare Desktop, Laptop or Netbook PC into a dual monitor for your primary computer. So if you’ve bought a netbook as a replacement to your 15 inch laptop like I did, fear not it still has use other then paper weight. No extra multi monitor hardware is required. Simply extend program windows across multiple screens as if it were one big monitor. We might even be giving a few activation codes away so stay tuned for a give-a-way!!! If you comment on this post, you can already enter to win!!
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