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 Seven. Windows XP Starter was released in 2004,
around three 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 1024 by 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.
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 the new Vista features and a more generous one-Gigabyte RAM limit.
However, Microsoft seemed to have underestimated how graphically demanding Vista's new
aesthetically pleasing Aero interface would be.
Aero was one of the causes of Vista running poorly on even higher-end PCs outside of emerging markets.
So Microsoft's decision to keep it in Vista Starter
was a real headscratcher. Microsoft eventually decided to replace Vista Starter
with Vista Home Basic, which contrasted with the more mainstream
Home Premium edition. Home Basic had Aero disabled
to lighten the processing load on lower-end PCs 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 Vista basic case badges
to find a made-for-Windows XP sticker underneath.
Yeah, 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 Netbooks, 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, two gigabytes 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 eight-Gigabyte memory limit.
But this would be the last time that Microsoft produced a 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.