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Windows 7 Starter And Home Basic Personalization Panel

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:28:47 +0000

Microsoft has released different editions of the Windows 7 operating system, all with distinct capabilities and restrictions. Especially the Windows 7 Starter and Home Basic editions have been limited in this regard, with the result that core operating system features are not supported by them.

It is for instance not possible to change the desktop wallpaper in Windows 7 Starter, or access other personalization options that the other Windows 7 editions offer.

The portable software Personalization Panel tries to change that by offering a solution to Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Starter users.

The developer has created two videos that demonstrate the programs capabilities in the operating system editions.

Windows 7 Home Basic

Windows 7 Starter

The software basically integrates several features into the Starter and Home Basic editions, namely:

Option to change themes in both editions
Ability to change wallpaper in Windows 7 Starter editions
Ability to change color schemes
Access to personalization features such as changing mouse pointers, sounds, screensavers, account pictures, display settings and icons.
Integration of a context menu entry to launch the software from the desktop right-click menu

The program is easy to use, and can be started without installation. It supports various display languages that are automatically set on startup. It does require the installation of the free software UxStyle though, which is needed to make the editions compatible with non-native themes.

The program download is available at the developer’s Russian website. (link, Google translate link, via)

Users of Windows 7 Starter and Home Basic have finally a tool at hand to personalize their operating system, almost the same way that users of other Windows 7 editions do.

Windows 7 Editions 1: Windows 7 Home Premium

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:43:01 +0000

Windows 7 Home Premium is one of three Windows 7 editions that Microsoft has designed for the mid to high end market segment (the other two are Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate). Home Premium is the first Windows 7 edition that comes with all basic features included (Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Starter both miss certain features like Windows 7 Aero, Windows Media Center or Windows Touch). This edition does lack several features that Microsoft has reserved for the more expensive editions Professional and Ultimate.

It is usually not that easy to evaluate all the different editions to find a suitable one. Even users who buy a pre-build PC system should make sure that the included operating systems meets all their demands. Windows 7 Home Premium’s main advantage is its price and the fact that it offers all features that Microsoft would consider essential. Here is a small overview of those features:

Windows 7 Home Premium features that Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows 7 Starter do not have:

Full Windows Aero support: The graphical user interface and theme for most Windows 7 editions.
Home Group (Create & Join): Easy network creation (the basic editions can only join but not create)
Multi-Touch (touch capabilities for the PC)
Premium Games (Internet Backgammon, Internet Checkers, and Internet Spades.)
Windows Media Center

There are on the other hand features that are not included in Windows 7 Home Premium. Those are only available in the higher priced editions:

Backup and Restore Center (backup to networks)
Windows Server Domain support.
Remote Desktop Server support.
Location aware printing: Automatically changes the default printer based on the location of the user.
Encrypting the file system
Presentation mode: Presentation Mode is found in the Mobility Centre (Windows Key + X) and lets you control your machine’s behavior while you are giving presentations
Windows XP Mode: Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC, available on Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate, allow you to run multiple Windows environments, such as Windows XP Mode, from your Windows 7 desktop
AppLocker (Ultimate only): Helps eliminate unwanted and unknown applications within an organization’s network
BitLocker Drive Encryption (Ultimate only): Hard drive and removable media encryption
BranchCache Distributed Cache (Ultimate only): BranchCache offers the potential of being able to access large files stored on servers much faster.
DirectAccess (Ultimate only): Utilises IPv6-over-IPsec to encrypt comms over the internet between remote workers and the DirectAccess server
Multilingual User Interface Pack (Ultimate only): Ability to switch to other interface languages.
Virtual Hard Disk Booting (Ultimate only): Create a virtual hard disk image, install an operating system and boot it.

Finally there are also hardware limits in place. Windows 7 Home Premium supports a maximum of 16 Gigabytes of computer memory. This limit is raised to 192 Megabytes in Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. Windows 7 Home Premium seems to be the natural choice for most home users unless one or multiple of the features only included in Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate are needed to operate the computer system.

Windows 7 Family Pack And Anytime Upgrade Pricing

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:20:31 +0000

The Windows 7 Pre-ordering period was not like many users, especially from Europe, would expect it to be. Microsoft promised discounts on Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional for a limited time which turned out to be so limited that Amazon Germany for instance sold out after 5 minutes of offering the pre-order discount. Pre-orders are currently still accepted but for a either a smaller discount or no discount at all.

It was therefor welcome when rumors about a Windows 7 Family Pack emerged on the Internet. This family pack was supposed to contain three Windows 7 licenses so that the operating system could be installed on three computer systems in one household.

The pricing for the Windows 7 Family Pack and the Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade was announced yesterday in an official blog post over at the Windows Team Blog. The features remain the same: Customers can buy a Windows 7 Family Pack consisting of three Windows 7 Home Premium licenses to install the operating system on three computers in one household. Windows 7 Home Premium is the only edition of Windows 7 that is offered in the family pack. The price for the Family Pack has been set to $149.99 in the US. It should be noted that the editions are upgrade editions and not retail editions which means that users need a Windows XP or Windows Vista license to perform the update.

The Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade pricing was announced in the same blog post. Anytime Upgrade refers to the possibility to upgrade a Windows 7 edition to another edition by paying a certain amount of money. This process does not involve installing the operating system anew and could be interesting for users who purchase a computer system with a Windows 7 edition that they want to upgrade because of the increased functionality that the upgraded system offers.

Three different Anytime Upgrade editions are available. It is possible to upgrade Windows 7 Starter, a version aimed at primarily at the netbook market, to Windows 7 Home Premium. It is furthermore possible to upgrade Windows 7 Home Premium to either Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate. The prices for the different versions are as follows:

Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium: $79.99
Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional: $89.99
Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate: $139.99

The pricing looks to be expensive considering that the Windows 7 Home Upgrade sells for $119.99 currently. Users safe between $40-$70 when performing the Anytime Upgrade instead of buying a retail upgrade edition of Windows 7 instead.