Windows 7 Starter Edition or Windows 7 Restricted Edition?

Confusing? Actually we are talking about “Windows 7 Starter Edition” here which should be better called “Windows 7 Restricted Edition“.

Why? As we all know previous Windows Starter Editions didn’t allow users to open more than 3 programs simultaneously and the same restrictions is found in Windows 7 Starter Edition.

But the most irritating and surprising thing in Windows 7 Starter Edition is the restriction over changing Desktop Wallpaper.

Windows 7 Starter Edition contains a grayed-out version of default Windows 7 beta wallpaper showing the fish on Desktop.

And the worst thing is, users are not allowed to change the wallpaper. There is no “Personalize” option in Desktop context menu:

Also no other ways to change wallpaper works like changing wallpaper using Windows Photo Gallery, web browser, etc. That’s really strange and hard to understand why Microsoft restricted such a basic feature even free Linux distros allow to change wallpapers.

Also there are no extra wallpapers in Starter Edition.

Thanks to “Paul Thurrott” who installed Windows 7 and tested all different editions like Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate and found this interesting restriction in Starter Edition.

Also “Rafael” @ WithinWindows describes how this restriction works in Windows 7 Starter Edition. He posts:

He also posts a workaround for it:

So what would you like to call it: Windows 7 Starter Edition or Windows 7 Restricted Edition?

PS: I can find only one reason behind it. Since Starter Edition is form OEMs, they might put their own customized wallpaper and lock it so that users can’t change it and OEMs can have their branded wallpaper on all machines.