Recently, Liliputing mentioned another fix which you can use to get things right. And the [...]]]>

Spot the Differences

A while ago I wrote a post on how to remove Windows 7 Starter’s most annoying cripple tactic - the lack of the ability to personalise your background. The Windows logo just looked absolutely hideous as a background.

Recently, Liliputing mentioned another fix which you can use to get things right. And the best part is that I just got a new netbook – an Asus Eee PC 1015PN. As always, it came with Windows 7 Starter, and the first thing I did was to find a means of changing my wallpaper.

You can find the fix here, which works extremely well. A simple click-install-restart and all of a sudden you’ll be able to right-click on the desktop and see the Personalization option. Of course, Windows 7 being itself, it doesn’t come with to many nice backgrounds, so you’ll have to prepare your own. Among the other tools made by Vishal Gupta are hacks that enable you to run a screensaver.

Of course, if you’re like me and just gotten a netbook with Nvidia ION in it, then you’ll probably eventually upgrade to Home Premium or something else because Starter doesn’t support Nvidia Optimus…

Personally, I have no problem with Windows 7 Starter, except for the small fact that you can’t change its [...]]]>

At the end of this tutorial, you're gonna say F*** Yea

Windows 7 Starter is inherently crippled as we all know, and as such it has been the target of many criticisms and attacks from the more demanding crowd… who doesn’t want to upgrade to Home Premium.

Personally, I have no problem with Windows 7 Starter, except for the small fact that you can’t change its background. That is unfortunately the most annoying part of Windows 7 – it forces you to stare at its logo-based wallpaper for eternity.

Not that you can’t get past it, however.

There are a few tools that have been made by the public to counter this act of fascist tomfoolery that seems some typical of Apple, not Microsoft. In this tutorial, however, we’ll see how we can use user-made tools rather than do it manually, which would involve registry hacking and hunting down files in Explorer.

Oceanis

Oceanis is probably the most popular Windows 7 Starter background changing tool.

With Oceanis, you will be able to change the background, as well as have more advanced functions such as desktop slideshows. Though the latter would not be advisable on a netbook, since it does take up resources.

The downside to Oceanis is that you’ll need to have the program running at start up so that it will constantly force Windows 7 to change the background. Oceanis takes up less than 1mb on RAM, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Download

Starter Background Changer

Spot the Differences

Next in line is the Starter Background Changer. If you have played with more superior versions of Windows, you’ll probably know that the Personalize button is missing when you right click on the desktop. No matter, because some French guy decided that he has had enough and made a program that will allow you to get access to this crucial part of Windows 7.

SBC is ad-supported.

Download or visit the official website.

Upgrade, dammit

One final way to change the Windows wallpaper is to just upgrade your copy of Windows 7. Microsoft already knew that you might want to upgrade because of all the limitations present in the Starter edition, and therefore have placed a program inside called Windows Anytime Upgrade. It’s a simple click, enter the CD-key of a more superior version of Windows and it will do everything for you. Do note that you must not duplicate the use of a CD-key as you will have to reactivate Windows again, and if your CD-key is found to be used on different computers, it will come out with multiple nag screens and ban you from the use of Windows Update. Worse, you can’t revert back to Starter if this should happen.

In the same program, you can buy a new copy of Windows online too, though this is available in select regions only, and unfortunately, not mine.

Perhaps the best way to get a good deal is to get a student discount. With a student discount, you can get an upgrade for a lot cheaper.