Microsoft forbids changes to Windows 7 netbook wallpaper
Netbook users running Windows 7 Starter Edition better learn to enjoy Microsoft's default desktop background, because that's all they're getting. Windows 7 Starter Edition not only blocks end-users from swapping the original Windows-provided wallpaper, colors, and sound schemes - OEMs and partners aren't allowed into the …
This topic is closed for new posts.
All I have to say is
*Farter* edition, more like.
Mine's the coat with the brown stain.
Desktoptards...
Is there anything more ludicrous? Can Microsoft handle this any worse? Customising your own PC is pretty much a given, and always has been. For them to stop you from changing your own desktop smacks of straw-grasping at ways of making the next version seem like the better choice.
Desktoptards.
Customization??
Would that be something like overwriting the image file with another?
Whats to stop someone
From finding the file for it and replacing the default file with one they want but keep the name the same? Or a registry hack that will allow it? Not to mention WTF is the reason for this?
Is this petty or...
...just desperate?
I am, in fact, almost enjoying this! LOL
The reason is...
Microsoft wants you to BUY the most expensive version possible you dummies!
Penguin all the way ;-D
Better than the alternative
While I don't understand what reason there is for blocking it, I do think they're making the right move in blocking the companies from doing it.
I'm fine with he standard green hills and blue skies, but I think a giant brand logo as my background would drive me insane (although I don't think I'll ever get anything running this stripped 7)
Is this for users, or just the OEMs
I could understand telling OEMs to keep thier crap off of the os, but changing of the background by end users, thats a stupid move.
This is funny
You do have to wonder about the state of sanity of marketing people who come up with stuff like this :)
"You can have any colour you want as long as its black" - Henry Ford
Face <- Hand
And this after their 'Engineering Windowws 7' blog said that they discovered that people like to customize and that they've add more features in to allow people to do just that. So now they say yes, but if you're on a netbook you're too stupid / tight / poor to have this Microsoft goodness bestowed upon you. Surely they aren't claiming that the hardware can't cope with different wallpaper?
They're so deluded and divorsed from reality it makes me wonder it they're actually MPs...
RE Whats to stop someone
I bet Microsoft make the background image file protected with Windows File Protection and also don't include Regedit by default.
I don't understand why Microsoft do this though for a product aimed at netbooks when they have strong competition from Linux.
I believe the only reason Windows beats Linux in the netbook market is due to:
-Microsoft does nice licensing details Asus and friends to keep linux out of this market
-The Windows versions of these machines have better hardware specs at cheaper prices!
I wonder when Microsoft will learn from their mistakes but I really don't think that they do.
Mike
Reg grave stone aimed at Microsoft for a stupid knee/foot shooting incident. Now if only they could place the gun nearer their head next time!
Hahaha?
What on earth?
I can imagine the fools sitting around a desk with their pencils tapping away and then, during an awkward silence, one of them mentions that they could block desktop changes. Then they all go Yea, yea, yea (like in parliament) just to fill the awkwardness.
Knob jockeys.
Microsoft tries to eliminate netbooks?
So... basically Microsoft is unable to program a good slim, no-frills OS for netbooks. So instead of brushing up their programming and make it work, they rather try to make netbooks go away?
Because that's what all Starter edition plans are sounding like.
Isn't it obvious ?
M$ will announce that "OK, you can change your desktop background after all", and everyone will sob with gratitude.
In the euphoria, some much bigger and more significant but less immediately visible limitation will go unquestioned until after launch, when it will be revealed (as with Vista home basic) that it really is so crippled as to be useless.
It's how M$ deliberately and habitually does things, as El Reg reminded us in a recent M$ EU antitrust article.
And what will the picture be?
I don't know that I even want a background picture when I'm working. It just consumes resources anyway, and a plain colour works OK.
MS in competion with Gordon Brown
To see who can fuck up something simple most spectacularly. Obviously GB was doing well by screwing up the MP's expenses overhaul and the Iraq war enquiry but MS may well have caught up with this move. Mind you I think GB's Rwanda/Twitter comment may be a slam dunk on his part....
What one can do...
...another can reverse. Unless MS roll out some mega signing mechanism with a now-to-big-crunch kind of decrypt problem (such as they've yet to do on anything else...), just how do they propose to make this impossible to override?
It would certainly be ironic if the strongest security feature is the one that stops you changing the wallpaper...
Duh
Just buy the oem version of the one you want, mucho cheaper than in a store :)
Think crying clowns and primary colors
So the desktop will be a photo of typical Windows users?
Overwrite ...
Overwrite the 'bliss.bmp' or whichever over saturated picture they set as the default. I do that for all win PCs I setup. I am soooo sick of looking at that nasty blue and green hills cack.
Why?
Why do Windows people put up with this crap anyway?
You pay for the license to use Ballmer's software and it shows.
If M$ wanted to force the issue then they should put a Ballmer family reunion pic as the lockdown background.
Better than the alternative?
Surely Ubuntu is a good alternative. Android and Moblin look promising too.
Harder?
"Look forward to walking your relatives through that process in the future."
I would imagine it would be easier than the current methods provided by Microsoft.
If M$ isn't going to allow modifications...
why would anyone bother with an M$ computer anyway? That's the only feature they have available that trumps Apple.
oh noes
Why would anyone want to change? M$ are so good with artwork and design, look at how well their geeks knocked up a full 800x600ppi tellytubby land for XP, and had the expertise to make it 8-bit heavily compressed with no anti-aliasing and turned the colour and contrast up to 13.
It's a joke you dummies
This 'finding' is a joke by Microsoft - then they can suddenly change that one registry key and let folks change what they want - the feature added "due to public demand". Meanwhile it keeps Windows7 in the news.
After all, if you can't change fonts, colours, etc then they might just run foul of the visual impaired. Personally I wouldn't even countenance such as hellishly restricted kludge.
Windows 7 Starter Edition? On this basis maybe they should rename it "Windows 7 for the Clueless" (and PC World will _still_ try and sell you a copy of Norton for it!)
Still, if a netbook with Win7SE on it is cheap then it'll be a boon for all the penguin herders out there - come in Ubuntu Netbook Remix...
Fecking Brilliant !!!!
Their competitors could not have done a better job at getting people to choose an alternative. Just who the f&%K is running the show in that place?
Me thinks the *NIX/Apple crowd have a mole working inside the beast. Its the only logical conclusion to the clusterfuck that this release is turning into.
How to stop change?
To all those who say "Why not just overwrite the file?" Either Lost @19:08 is correct and they are using it to cover for something else which is worse, or they could bury the graphic in a required .dll file which cannot be changed without screwing the entire system. You know, the same way they embedded bits of IE into random system files purely so it is impossible to completely remove.
Resources???
Maybe they can't change the wallpaper. Typical netbooks have limited resources (disk, memory) so it may be that the netbook after loading the Windows 07 operating system and all the other junk that comes in an OEM version has there isn't any room left over to load some simple wallpaper, or the program to make it work. What with Windows 07 being a resource hog (what version of Windows isn't!) it will barely work anyway.
Upgrades available, please send money to: upgrade OS, more memory, more disk! But it isn't a netbook then (oh, well!).
Ah Hell ....
Wipe it and install XP, or Linux ... or buy a MAC. Lots of choices
A title is required
I always change my users desktop to Aqua...looks nice and they seem to appreciate it!
Compulsory?
Will owners not be able to turn the wallpaper off altogether? It's a well-known fact that wallpaper and other uneccessary fancy graphics drain system resources and I would imagine that a netbook needs all it can get. My own home desktop machines have no wallpaper and are set for "best performance" in properties and "classic" appearance. Dull, I know, but not having to struggle to maintain all the fancy graphics and/or wallpaper does perk them up quite considerably.
started edition
Windows Started Edition bare bones OS for cheapest OEM netbooks and laptops available only in certain regions
99.9% of you will not buy this version, so why you talk crap about it? Who cares?
Sad & Pathetic
Oh look another knock at Microsoft and the Linux geeks are lining up to thank them for it, losers
Spysheriff
Just browse for malware and it'll change it for you!
Will anyone use starter edition anyway?
Linux works much better for netbooks, since all you need is Firefox, a text editor and perhaps OpenOffice and an mp3/video player.
Here have some title
MS are so proficient at the "aim gun at foot and pull the trigger" method of public relations, does this REALLY come as a shock to anyone? I mean seriously this isn't the first time it's happened and not the least of their gaffs in this whole situation.
Crippleware
There is no need to say any more really is there? That just shows how competitive MS thinks they are, that they can remove trivial features from a product, call it an upgrade, and then charge to replace the features removed. Let's hope the European commisson make mincemeat out of them. Again.
Accessibility
I am not sure that people with a visual impairment will be particularly happy.
There is no way they can get away with that without being challenged.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility
I am therefore fairly confident that microsoft will backtrack on this idea.
When the leader is NOT seated in the Tao...
To paraphrase Lao Tzu: When the leader is NOT seated in the Tao... then the whole company is not in the Tao. Given how autistic Chairman (Rockin' Mr.) Bill is, and how devious their early competative efforts were, it's no surprise to me the depth of awkwardness they design into every single product they produce. They continue to trip over themselves for a shrinking iota of market share. Bye bye M$, it's been a pain in the ass knowin' ya! I don't know Linux very well now, but the future has penguins written all over it.
Do MS have any money left?
There is the find $10000 in Oz and now this, just to get free publicity!
Or are MS starving the financially challenged competition free publicity?
@defiant
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAAAAAHAHAAAAHAHAHA
M$ Fanboys got fucked.
re: Resources??
Most phones, with far more limited resources, can change wallpaper.
If it has got enough space and grunt to handle Windows 7, it can handle wallpapering. Even WinCE devices can do this.
BingBook? LiveBook?
If M$ marketing had an ounce of savvy, they'd be doing brand leveraging - weave the brands together to help support new products. Apple does this well with the whole iXxxx thing.
Netbooks fit in with whole idea of clouds and network teathering. They should call these things LiveBooks or Bingbooks or something.
Your Bingbook is just a Bing portal.
It would then make some sense to defeat customising the wallpaper or doing any OEMing. Just have the Live or Bing branding as the wallpaper to re-enforce the whole concept.
This topic is closed for new posts.
