Windows 7 Starter = no external DVD player?

I read here http://www.retrevo.com/content/blog/2009/11/microsoft-trying-kill-netbook-market that Windows 7 Starter does not allow use of an external DVD/CD drive. Is this correct? Yet I see posts here where people are using external DVD drives ... have they upgraded their OS?

Could my Aspire One (AO532h) with Win7 Starter work with an external Blu-ray player without an OS upgrade?

Thanks

 

You are confused. Win7 Starter can use an external DVD drive just fine, burning and reading data discs and playing CDs is no problem. It does not, however, come with the DVD codec that Home Premium does.

What this means is that you can't play a DVD film on Win7 Starter out of the box. You can, however, install your favourite of the free codec packs available on the net (I use the Shark007 codec pack) which you would end up installing anyway to play other stuff.

Basically, there are few limitations on Win7 Starter and only a couple of them matter for a netbook as the other limitations would never impact the way a netbook is used or involve features that would be turned off to save battery power or avoid slowing down the CPU/Vid card anyway. You may need to think your way around a few of them though, but it's not hard.

Those that matter:

No DVD codec - Resolved when you install a codec pack.

No Media Centre - Use media player or download an alternative. Only really a shame if you have an HDMI port on the netbook. Free alternatives can be had though.

Cannot create a Homegroup - Create one on your desktop PC and then join it with the netbook. Works just as well, so there really is no practical limitation.

Not allowed to change wallpaper - Weird one. Why did they do this? Who knows, but you can get simple utilities on the net to switch to your wallpaper of choice if you wish anyway, so easily resolvable for free.

Windows Backup won't allow you to backup to a network drive - Ruddy annoying as this would be useful for a netbook, but let's face it, even Home Premium can't do this so you would need to spring for Professional for network backup. I don't need this on my Desktop with its external backup HDD always being attached so Home Premium doesn't need it, but Starter really could use this feature as backing up over the network would be handy for a netbook. I got around this by buying a cheap Seagate portable external drive, but it's a poor move for Microsoft.

So, upgrade to Home Premium if you really need Media Centre on your Netbook, but try the alternatives first. I doubt you'll spring for Professional just to get network backup, so Media Centre is the only consideration in your decision making process.

One further note, I have no experience of BlueRay. Again, only really an issue if you have an HDMI port (you may as well use DVD for a small low res netbook screen) as I believe it can use BlueRay discs for data storage etc. but it won't be able to play BlueRay films out of the box. I have no idea where you would get a free codec from, perhaps they are in the codec packs, but I've never tested this as I don't have a BlueRay drive. You need to make sure the netbook you buy is powerful enough to play HD video though, so check that it has suitable hardware video acceleration. Try to buy an external BlueRay drive that comes with some playback software like a modern version of PowerDVD or some such as this will include a codec.

 

An excellent reply, BongMong, thanks. I am now much less confused
Regards
Pooch