w7 "starter"

Windows 7 has an anytime upgrade. You need to pay and can upgrade to another version.
Facts and pricing here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-anytime-upgrade
Though I am not sure if this applies to netbooks.

Netbooks, as far as I am aware, will never have anything better than Win 7 Starter installed when purchased new. So waiting 6 months to purchase will not gain you a better version of Windows 7.

 

Hi

As Netbooks do come with Starter you can use Anytime upgrade to goto Home Premium as I have done this (may just have been the spec Netbook I have), however I wouldn't advise it if this is going to be a main pc as you will need a high end Netbook, so if you are looking to want to run at least Win7 Home Premium then buy a laptop, if you like the smallness of a netbook then you can get 11" screen laptops as they generally sill have the power to run Home Premium and Aero ok.

 

Ah, thanks halo. I wanted to know if someone had actually attempted and succeeded doing this.

 

I know it runs on netbooks. I spend a lot of time in the eeepc users forum where lots of people have installed Win 7 on their eeepc netbooks.
What I did not know is that it was possible to upgrade from win 7 starter to a better version.

 

Hi folks

Yes as we know netbooks come with Starter, but rather than clean install I decided to (as I had run a test scenarion during the beta on Win7 for this) use Anytime upgrade and as I have quite a few original keys for Win7 (MSDN and TechNet) it was worth a try as my netbook has 2GB ram (also as a test I did pop out 1GB ram and it works ok with 1GB too, not as snappy but works) and it worked fine.


this is a photo I took a few mins ago, took a real pic over a screenshot as screenshots can be photoshopped, taken on my phones camera but as you can see its Home Premium version

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/38/imag0004fa.th.jpg


I still would advocate not going to Home Premium from Starter unless you really want too as it doesnt offer much more and with having a netbook you are really wanting the basics anyways for internet (I have a HTC HD2 phone that can internet share my HSDPA connection), using MS Office or OpenOffice etc then Starter is fine as it doesnt add too many services.

If you do goto Home Premium as it offers say Media Center, then do install a codec pack to aid video playback being smoother, for some reason so HD video was jerky fo rme until I installed Sharks Win7 Codecs HERE

 

I would not consider even putting windows on my netbook. Since mine has a 4GB ssd drive, I knew all those windows updates would use up the space too fast. Linux is working well for what I purchased the netbook to do. Newer netbooks have non-ssd hard drives and are much larger so for those people that want to run windows, they have a lot more room for the install and the updates/patches.

How large an install is Home Premium?

 

Thanks. I'll put that in my notes so when someone asks about installing on netbooks, I can give them an answer.

 

Windows folder on my Netbook with Win7 HP is nearly 9GB, does not take into account the Program Files folder which has some Windows apps in it, so would go with 10GB a min install size, with no 3rd party apps.

 

Eventually in a few years time when Windows 8 is out, then netbooks and the CPU, RAM and SSDs that they use will cope with a full featured version of Windows, but as it stands now Netbooks are just really a small portable lighweight PC, and the CPU in the current Atoms cannot do the same tasks efficiently or as quick as a laptop with dual/quad core cpus.

But they where never designed originally to be powerhouses.

To answer the question on temp placeholder then no their is no scheme from Microsoft however you are correct in the various versions are aimed at the specific usage scenarios for various PCs, be it Windows Mobile for phones, Starter for netbooks and low end laptops to Ultimate for power PCs.

I like my netbook for portability and it runs everything I need from Office 2010 beta at present to Internet (IE8 and Minefield) and Photoshop Lightroom and CS4 suprisingly, I use my Windows Mobile phone in the HTC HD2 to share my HSDPA internet of the phone to the laptop making it ultimately very portable.

 

This was decided by MS. The netbook makers have to abide by MS's decision.
If you want a hardier version of windows, then your option is to buy a notebook or a desktop not a netbook.