Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system, has received positive reviews; Windows 7 Starter, the version for netbooks, not so much.

    Some critics think Microsoft's previous operating system, Windows Home XP, remains a better choice for netbooks in terms of overall battery life and some other features. This holiday season, shoppers are seeing netbooks on shelves loaded with XP and others with Windows 7 Starter. The latter is an essentially stripped-down version of Windows 7, released in October. `（Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.）

    Windows 7 Starter may be too stripped down, some say. Among its frustrations: The background screen on the computer desktop cannot be personalized or changed from Microsoft's dominant logo, and there is no way to play back a DVD with an external DVD drive attached to the netbook.

    "You cannot change the desktop background on any Windows 7 Starter system," wrote Joanna Stern in an article on SlashGear's site recently. "That's simply ridiculous. I have been changing backgrounds in Windows since my very first desktop that ran Windows 95!

    "Can I live with a blue Windows logo on my notebook's desktop? Sure, but why should I? Yes, Windows 7 may be more aesthetically appealing than Windows XP, but who wants to look at a blue shaded Windows logo forever?"

    Sales still strong

    Netbooks continue to remain a strong part of the laptop market, representing between 15 and 20 percent of sales, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group research firm.

    The little laptops, generally weighing between 2 and 3 pounds and with 7- to 10-inch screens, are considered second computers for many, and provide wireless Web access on the go.

    "What we're seeing this holiday is that XP has been predominantly available on door-buster, lower-cost netbooks, those $300 and less, but the bulk of the netbooks out there are going to come with Windows 7 Starter," he said.

    A recent check of Amazon.com's top-10 selling netbooks showed sales evenly divided between netbooks with XP and Windows 7 Starter.

    'Solid, basic experience'

    Benjamin Rudolph of Microsoft's Windows Business Group said the company extensively tested Windows 7 Starter, with "hundreds of thousands of people testing the product for thousands and thousands of hours," and concluded that for "people looking for that solid, basic experience" of Web surfing and checking e-mail on netbooks, Windows 7 Starter was a good choice.

    "There are a couple of the visual elements that the higher versions of Windows 7 has that Windows 7 Starter doesn't have, including the ability to change the background," he said.

    The lack of DVD playback with Windows 7 Starter has also come as a surprise to some, who have gone out and bought USB DVD drives to plug into their netbooks, only to find such drives won't work.

    "If you want to engage in more mobile entertainment, you want to be able to play DVDs back, you want the richer media experience, you might want to consider Windows Home Premium. That's why the Windows 'anytime upgrade' is such a good option," letting users decide if or when they want to move to a more robust operating system, said Rudolph.

    The cost to upgrade from Windows Starter 7 to Windows 7 Home premium is $79.99. Some consider that a steep price, considering most netbooks themselves are between $300 and $400.

    On one of its blogs, "Let's talk about Windows 7 Starter," Microsoft talks about many of the issues that have gotten attention of netbook users.

    7 Starter plusses

    Alex Spektor, netbook share tracker for Strategy Analytics, said that "part of Microsoft's reasoning for the fixed wallpaper （or background） may have been to limit the consumption of system resources on constrained machines like netbooks."

    He believes there are "several key advantages" to using Windows 7 Starter vs. XP Home on netbooks. Among them: "The user interface, while largely a carryover from Windows Vista, holds some significant improvements over Windows XP," especially with improved "Wi-Fi connection management" that is easier than XP's.

    The newer operating system, released in October, "displays all available Wi-Fi connections in a pop-up menu on the desktop, allowing for easy lookup of nearby hotspots and quick toggling between routers," Spektor said. "In contrast, Windows XP uses a somewhat cumbersome dialog box, which is somewhat less intuitive."

    windows 7,微軟公司的最新操作系統，得到好評。windows 7 starter,針對筆記本的版本，好評卻不是很多。

    一些批評家認為微軟的以前的操作系統，Windows Home XP,在整個電池壽命及其它一些特性項目方面，對于筆記本都提供比較好的選擇。在這個假日里，購物者正尋找那些安裝了XP的筆記本電腦，而里一些人則選擇安裝了Windows 7 Starter.后者從本質上來說脫離了Windows 7 版本，10月份發布的。（Msnbc.com是微軟和NBC大學聯合開辦的企業）

    一些人表示，可能Windows 7 Starter脫離太過。它的令人失望的地方：電腦上的桌面屏幕背景不能個性化或微軟設定的標志無法改變。而且無法使用連接到筆記本的外部DVD驅動使DVD重放。

    "你無法改變任何的Windows 7 Starter系統的桌面背景。"朱安娜 斯蒂爾在SlashGear's網站上最近發表的一篇文章中寫道。"那簡直有點可笑。從我運行Windows 95操作系統的第一個桌面就開始更改背景。

    "我可能在我的筆記本電腦的桌面上保留藍色的標志嗎？當然可以，但為什么我要這樣做？是的，Windows 7 可能在審美方面比Windows XP更能吸引人，但是誰想永遠看到藍色背景的窗口呢？"

    銷售依然強勁

    輕便筆記本依然是筆記本市場的強勁部分，占銷售額的15%到20%,斯蒂芬。 貝肯說，為NPD集團研發公司做工業分析的副總裁說。

    小筆記本，總的來說在2-3磅重，7-10英尺的屏幕，對于很多人來說把它視為第二個電腦，并提供無線網絡通道。

    "這個節假日我們所看到的是XP在廣告商品方面是非常顯著的，低成本小筆記本，300美元或低于300美元，但大部分小筆記本安裝了Windows 7 Starter系統"他說。

    最近的Amazon.com的銷售前十的檢查顯示XP與Windows 7 的銷售基本持平。

    可靠的，基礎的體驗

    微軟視窗商業集團的本杰明 如多爾芬說公司對Windows 7 Starter做過廣泛測試，成百上千的人測試了幾千個小時，最終得出結論，為了上網沖浪和查收郵件即人們所尋找的可靠的體驗

    ,Windows 7 Starter是一個不錯的選擇。

    "有一些Windows 7高級版本所有的視覺元素而Windows 7 Starter 并沒有，包括更改背景。"他說。

    Windows 7 Starter 的缺少DVD重放功能，對于很多人來說也是比較吃驚，他們出去購買的USBDVD驅動插入電腦卻發現這些驅動不能工作。

    如果你想享受更多的移動娛樂，你想能重放DVD,你想有更豐富的媒體體驗，你應優先考慮Windows Home Premium.那是為什么Windows無論何時的升級是一個如此不錯的選擇。讓使用者決定是否或何時他們想使用一個更強勁的操作系統。如多爾芬說

    從Windows Starter 7 升級到Windows 7 Home premium 的費用是79.99美元。一些人認為那是很高的價格，大多數小筆記本電腦本身在300到400美元之間。

    在一篇名為"讓我們談一下Windows 7 starter"的 博客中微軟談論了很多從小筆記本使用者那里得來的觀點。

    埃里克斯 斯貝克特，為策略分析做小筆記本市場份額追蹤，說："微軟的固定壁紙的一部分原因可能是限制在像小筆記本這種限制機型上系統資源的消費。"

    他相信在小筆記本上使用Windows 7 Starter 比使用XP Home有幾個關鍵的優勢。其中有：用戶界面，很大程度上是從Windows Vista繼承過來的，比Windows XP有了很大的改進，尤其是Wi-Fi 連接管理的改進，比XP的更加簡單。

    10月發布的新操作系統，在桌面上顯示所有可用的在彈出菜單中的Wi-Fi 連接，使相近熱點的查找更容易及路由器之間的快速連接。