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Windows licenses have always been notoriously expensive, but did you know

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there used to be a few additions of Windows specifically made for regions

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where users typically have less cash to spend or less high-end hardware

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available to them? Collectively, they were called Windows Starter Editions and

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spanned three generations of the operating system, XP, Vista, and 7.

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Windows XP Starter was released in 2004,

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around three years after the regular editions of XP came out and was targeted

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at certain countries in South America, South and Southeast Asia, along with

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Russia and Turkey. There was great demand for lowerc cost PCs in these

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regions, meaning that Microsoft saw an opportunity to provide an operating

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system for those PCs and get lots of new users on the Microsoft platform.

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Microsoft was also concerned that Linux, which was freely available, would end up

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becoming the dominant OS in those parts of the world if they didn't step in with

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their own solution. Not to mention that they were worried that people would just

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use pirated operating systems if they didn't make Windows cheap enough. Of

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course, this stripped down version of XP had serious limitations. It could only

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run three programs at once, maxed out at a screen resolution of 1024x768,

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and was only licensed for the lowest end hardware. Think processors like the

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Duron and Celeron and systems with only 512 megabytes of memory or less. But

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despite these limitations, or maybe because of them, Windows XP Starter was

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a hit. Microsoft sold over a million copies of XP Starter and followed up the

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success with Windows Vista Starter in 2007. But this is where things started

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to get a little hairy for the software giant. We'll tell you why right after we

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thank Shopify. If you've been following us, you've probably heard of

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ltstore.com. Well, it's made entirely possible thanks to Shopify. Shopify is a

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powerful commerce platform that empowers you to start, grow, and manage a

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business. We've been using Shopify since 2019 and have processed hundreds of

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thousands of orders thanks to their amazing tools. For creators like us,

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they offer a fantastic feature that integrates our shop across all social

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platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and more. And it's not just

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us. Millions of people in over 170 countries are selling online using

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Shopify, even though, like us, they're Canadian. Plus, their platform is super

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easy to use thanks to a simple drag and drop store editor, marketing tools, and

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access to over 8,000 apps in the Shopify app store to customize your store. So go

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to shopify.com/techwick to start your online store today. Do it.

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At first, it might seem like Vista Starter would be an easy upgrade from XP

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Starter. It had similar restrictions designed to allow it to work well on

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lower-end hardware, but with a new Vista features and a more generous 1 GB RAM

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limit. Microsoft eventually decided to replace Vista Starter with Vista Home

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Basic, which contrasted with the more mainstream Home Premium Edition. Home

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Basic had Arrow disabled to lighten the processing load on lower-end PCs and

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ended up on computers for sale outside of the emerging markets we previously

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mentioned, including in the US. Part of the reason for the Home Basic release

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was that Vista had already developed a reputation as a frustrating OS to run

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due to the ownorous hardware requirements, and Home Basic became a

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way for Microsoft to try and change this perception as well as to sell old stock

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of underpowered computers originally designed for Windows XP. In fact, it

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wasn't uncommon to peel off those Windows Vista basic case badges to find

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a made for Windows XP sticker underneath. Your basic. But as funny as

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this was, it did make a bit more sense for Microsoft to have just one lower-end

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version for underpowered hardware, regardless of the geographical location.

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Despite the fact Vista Starter didn't do so well, Microsoft pressed on with the

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Starter lineup, releasing Windows 7 Starter in 2009. Confusingly though,

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Starter was now the edition designed for the then popular netbooks, small low

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power laptops that attracted users that mostly needed a PC for simple

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internet-based tasks. Like the other starter editions, it had a memory

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limitation, 2 GB in this case. But unlike those other ones, Windows 7

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starter had a foothold in more developed nations due to being designed for

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netbooks. Instead of getting the new starter, the emerging markets got

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Windows 7 Home Basic, which now had a

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larger 8 GB memory limit. But this would be the last time that Microsoft produced

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a stripped down Windows version for certain parts of the world. As even

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lower-end hardware became more powerful, running Windows became easier,

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especially as Microsoft kept the system requirements of Windows 7, 8, and even

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10 fairly similar. How nice of them. But the lack of starter editions following

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Windows 7 actually contributed to the death of the netbook, which is a super

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interesting topic in its own right. So, if you'd like to know more about how the

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netbook disappeared after having 15 minutes of immense fame in the late

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2000s, go watch this video