Windows 7 Starter Edition reportedly drops three-app limit

According to reports, Microsoft is preparing a small but significant change to the way Windows 7 Starter Edition -- the most basic of the six versions of the upcoming operating system -- will work. Specifically: The restriction preventing users from running more than three applications at a time is -- allegedly -- being dropped.

Starter Edition, which is targeted exclusively at low-power, low-cost netbook machines, has been controversial due to this feature, as many saw the three-app limit overly restrictive, and ultimately a totally pointless restriction for the software. Seriously: Limiting the number of programs a user can run does nothing but frustrate your user base, and since the OS will only be sold pre-installed on netbooks, it leaves users with only the option to upgrade to another version of Windows 7 as a recourse. Paying $200 to update the OS on a $400 computer just so you can run four apps instead of three? Not a great value proposition.

Microsoft's reason for making the restriction is obvious: Strip down the OS so severely that you'll prevent manufacturers from installing Starter Edition on mainstream, non-netbook machines. Starter Edition has other restrictions -- no wallpaper allowed, lots of apps stripped out -- but the three-app limit was the biggest.

Paul Thurrot broke the news on his website a few days ago but Microsoft has yet to confirm it or offer additional details.

So, assuming the news is completely legit, the question arises: Why would Microsoft concede and take this restriction out of Windows? Starter Edition has met with nothing but hatred since it was announced due to this issue, but the company is hardly a stranger to bad press. If Microsoft really cared about not aggravating its customers, it would have removed the horrendous Windows Genuine Advantage spyware system from its product line years ago.

My hunch? Independent reports have shown that in reality you can sometimes run more than three apps on Starter Edition at once without complaint, and that sometimes, despite Microsoft's claims to the contrary, apps that are supposed to be exempt from the three-app limit won't run if you're already running three other programs. Did Starter Edition's three-app limit simply not work well enough to make the final cut for Windows 7? Why fix it when you can take it out altogether?