Windows licenses have always been
notoriously expensive but did you know
there used to be a few editions of
Windows specifically made for Regions
where users typically have less cash to
spend or less high-end Hardware
available to them collectively they were
called Windows starter editions and
spanned three generations of the
operating system XP Vista and 7 Windows
XP starter was released in 2004 around 3
years after the regular editions of XP
came out and was targeted at certain
countries in South America South and
Southeast Asia along with Russia and
Turkey there was great demand for lower
cost PCS in these regions meaning that
Microsoft saw an opportunity to provide
an operating system for those PCS and
get lots of new users on the Microsoft
platform Microsoft was also concerned
that Linux which was freely available
would end up becoming the dominant OS in
those parts of the world if they didn't
step in with their own solution not to
mention that they were worried that
people would just use pirated operating
systems if they didn't make windows
cheap enough of course this stripped
down version of XP had serious
limitations It could only run three
programs at once maxed out at a screen
resolution of 1024x 768 and was only
licensed for the lowest-end hardware
think processors like the Duron and
Celeron and systems with only 512
megabytes of memory or less but despite
these limitations or maybe because of
them Windows XP starter was a hit
Microsoft sold over a million copies of
XP starter and followed up the success
with Windows Vista starter in 2007 but
this is where things started to get a
little hairy for the software giant
we'll tell you why right after we thank
Shopify if you've been following us
you've probably heard of LTD store.com
well it's made entirely possible thanks
to Shopify Shopify is a powerful
Commerce platform that empowers you to
start grow and manage a business we've
been using shopy since 2019 and have
processed hundreds of thousands of
orders thanks to their amazing tools for
creators like us they offer a fantastic
feature that integrates our shop across
all social platforms like YouTube
Facebook Instagram and more and it's not
just us millions of people in over 170
countries are selling online using
Shopify even though like us they're
Canadian plus their platform is super
easy to use thanks to a simple drag and
drop store editor marketing tools and
access to over 8,000 apps in the Shopify
App Store to customize your store so go
to shopify.com tequ to start your online
store today do it at first it might seem
like Vista starter would be an easy
upgrade from XP starter it had similar
restrictions designed to allow it to
work well on lower-end Hardware but with
a new Vista features and a more generous
1 GB Ram limit Microsoft eventually
decided to replace Vista starter with
Vista Home basic which contrasted with
the more mainstream Home Premium Edition
home basic had Arrow disabled to lighten
the processing load on Lower NPCs and
ended up on computers for sale outside
of the Emerging Markets we previously
mentioned including in the US part of
the reason for the home basic release
was that Vista had already developed a
reputation as a frustrating OS to run
due to the onerous Hardware requirements
and home basic became a way for
Microsoft to try and change this
perception as well as to sell old stock
of underpowered computers originally
designed for Windows XP in fact it
wasn't uncommon to peel off those
windows list a basic case badges to find
a made for Windows XP sticker underneath
you basic but as funny as this was it
did make a bit more sense for Microsoft
to have just one lower-end version for
underpowered Hardware regardless of the
geographical location despite the fact
Vista starter didn't do so well
Microsoft pressed on with the starter
lineup releasing Windows 7 starter in
2009 confusingly though starter was now
the addition designed for the then
popular net books small low power
laptops that attracted users that mostly
needed a PC for simple internet-based
tasks like the other starter editions it
had a memory limitation 2 GB in this
case but unlike those other ones Windows
7 starter had a foothold in more
developed Nations due to being designed
for netbooks instead of getting the new
starter the Emerging Markets got Windows
7 Home basic which now had a larger 8 GB
memory limit but this would be the last
time that Microsoft produced a stri
stripped down Windows version for
certain parts of the world as even
lower-end Hardware became more powerful
running Windows became easier especially
as Microsoft kept the system
requirements of Windows 7 8 and even 10
fairly similar how nice of them but the
lack of starter editions following
Windows 7 actually contributed to the
death of the netbook which is a super
interesting topic in its own right so if
you'd like to know more about how the
netbook disappeared after having 15
minutes of immense Fame in the late
2000s go watch this video next