Microsoft Corporation announced that it would not set a limit on the number of applications available for use at one time on the new Starter version of its soon-to-be-released Windows 7 operating system, thus reversing its previous plans aimed at increasing sales of the upgrade.

The reversal is strategically important as Microsoft jostles to maintain its dominance in the market for the increasingly popular ‘netbooks’—miniature, inexpensive personal computers—which constitute the main market for Microsoft’s most stripped-down version of the new operating system.