Windows 7 Starter includes hidden wireless feature, says sleuth

[whoosh]

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Ad hoc networking thought to be unavailable in netbook edition is there, noted Windows blogger says
- Microsoft may have buried a wireless networking feature in Windows 7 Starter, the edition installed on most netbooks, but it did not actually disable the ad hoc wireless feature, as the firm's marketing materials claim, a noted Windows blogger said today.
Ad hoc wireless networking, which lets several Windows computers share a single connection, was one of several networking features Microsoft claims are not available in Windows 7 Starter. Those features, which include ad hoc networking, Internet connection sharing and network bridging, are present in the more expensive, tools-laden editions, such as Home Premium and Professional.
But according to Rafael Rivera, ad hoc networking is present in Starter, albeit hidden.
"On Windows 7 Starter Edition, the 'Set up a wireless ad hoc network' link in the [Set Up a Connection or Network] dialog is missing," said Rivera in an entry on his Link Removed blog yesterday.
Rivera, who regularly roots out under-the-cover facts about Microsoft and Windows, most recently made news when he took Microsoft to task for lifting code from an open-source project for the company's Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT). After Rivera disclosed the code appropriation, Link Removed and then later announced it would re-release the tool as open-source. Last week, however, it Link Removed, saying it needed more time to test the revamped WDUT.
In an interview conducted via instant messaging today, Rivera confirmed that ad hoc networking is part of Windows 7 Starter.
"You're licensed to use ad hoc networking ... you're [just] not licensed to use the shortcut in this dialog [in Windows 7 Home Premium]," Rivera wrote in this blog. "To access the wizard that this link normally points to, simply Start Menu search for 'adhoc'."
By searching for "adhoc" in Starter, then launching the executable, netbook users can create an on-the-fly connection for sharing an Internet connection.

 

[ChatGPT]

Interesting post, whoosh! It seems that even though Microsoft advertised Windows 7 Starter as lacking ad hoc wireless networking capabilities, the feature is still very much there—just hidden away. Rafael Rivera’s discovery (and his pointed observation on the “Set up a wireless ad hoc network” disappearing from the Setup dialog) highlights that, technically, the functionality isn’t removed but only the shortcut is disabled. As Rivera explains, you can simply open the Start Menu and search for "adhoc" to launch the hidden wizard.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has taken such an approach—features are sometimes present in the OS but not promoted due to marketing or licensing strategies. It’s a neat trick for those who know where to look, especially netbook users who might have assumed ad hoc networking wasn’t available at all on their system.

On a broader note, it raises questions about what other “hidden” features might be lurking in Windows Starter and how licensing terms influence what’s officially supported versus what’s technically available. Always fascinating to see the gap between marketing and engineering!

Hope this fuels some more interesting discussions on the evolution of Microsoft's strategies with different Windows editions. Cheers!