Unable to change Windows 7 Starter wallpaper!

The difference with the Windows 7 Starter edition is that the OEM computer manufacturers were able to convince Microsoft that they needed the Starter edition to keep the price of their Netbooks low enough to be competitive. This why Starter is avilable to the general public and this is why you are still able to purchase a Netbook for $300.

Still, it seems to me like a very poor marketing decision to eliminate something so fundamental to the user's experience rather than bells and whistles like animated icons, etc.  I would expect Microsoft would use the netbook to attract new microsoft fans rather than drive them away.  The number of remarks I found on the net about the BSOD surprised me.  And it seems like many of my friends and all my nephews and nieces have moved away from windows.  Oh well...

Also, I think there was an interface upgrade package for Windows 98, right??

As you know, us (we??) users are a finiky bunch.  I'll grow to like the black screen rather than pay 30% of the cost of my computer (Premium) for an upgrade to get functionality I think should be in the OS.

Anyway, thanks for the reply.  If you decide to release an aero upgrade for $30 or so, let me know and I'll think about it -- as long as I can turn off the features I don't want.

Still -- it seems strange to find that XP, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows 3.1 and even Vista had a feature that has been pulled from new-and-improved Windows 7.

Hi

Prior to XP, there were no Starter editions of windows. If you do some research and look at the XP and Vista Starter editions, they were similarly configured to run on low end systems, with minimum resources. These were only available in third world, emerging markets.

The difference with the Windows 7 Starter edition is that the OEM computer manufacturers were able to convince Microsoft that they needed the Starter edition to keep the price of their Netbooks low enough to be competitive. This why Starter is avilable to the general public and this is why you are still able to purchase a Netbook for $300.

Microsoft Windows XP Starter Edition Fact Sheet:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/WinXPStarterFS.mspx

Windows Vista Starter Fact Sheet:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/windows/factsheets/WinVistaStarterFS.mspx

Regards.

Well -- I think I found the problem but don't understand it. I remember a value in the register that used to be

    Wallpaper=...\img0.jpg

Now it is empty.  I tried resetting it and verifying that it was reset and rebooting and examining regedit found it is again empty.  I guess an empty Wallpaper is a black wallpaper.  Interesting...

I guess I'll manage with a black wallpaper.  Putting another $90 into a $300 computer doesn't make much sense. 

Still -- it seems strange to find that XP, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows 3.1 and even Vista had a feature that has been pulled from new-and-improved Windows 7.

My  old Acer netbook with XP died with a bad hard disk so I couldn't reinstall so I bought a new one with Windows 7 starter.  First thing I wanted to do was get rid of the obnoxious background on the new system.  I replaced img0.jpg with  an image I liked and now I have a black background -- which is preferable to what I had before.

I can't believe microsoft shot themselves in the foot by removing a feature that has been around since windows 3.1 (I think) and is so fundamental to the look of the OS.  If not for this, I might think about upgrading but there are enough other differences that I won't think of it without knowing what I'm upgrading to.

On the + side, I got a new hard drive for the old system and it runs Ubuntu 10.10 just fine.  The only feature missing is that I can't use the web-cam on skype.   Since I hadn't used Linux for about 5 years and and wouldn't have thought of it now except for the background feature removal, I have to say thank you Microsoft.