Windows 7 starter edition beefed up

More apps at once, wider availability. The Starter Edition looks vaguely competent again.

Microsoft has decided to allow its Windows 7 Starter edition to run more than three apps at once.

The company came in for some healthy criticism over the limitation in the first place. Now in a post on the Windows blog the Redmond OS maker has changed has its tune.

"Based on the feedback we've received from partners and customers asking us to enable a richer small notebook PC experience with Windows 7 Starter, we've decided to make some changes compared to previous Starter editions," the company said.

"We are going to enable Windows 7 Starter customers the ability to run as many applications simultaneously as they would like, instead of being constricted to the 3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included."

In addition Microsoft is going to be selling the Starter version worldwide, rather than in selected (poor) regions.
"It is important to note that Windows 7 Starter still includes only a subset of the features offered in the higher editions of Windows 7," the bog notes. Users will not be able to play DVDs, stream music or run Windows XP software, for example.