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Get up to $175 back for your pre-installed Windows 11 license — new portal provides legal forms, but warns buyers not to wipe storage first Campaign is led by the Italian Linux Society and the Free Software Foundation Europe. The majority of PCs are sold with Windows 11 licensed, paid-for, and pre-installed. This fact irks many folks, especially Linux aficionados who intend to wipe all traces of Microsoft’s OS while their shiny new machine is box fresh. The Refund4Freedom site was put together by the Italian Linux Society and the Free Software Foundation Europe to help address this unfairness. “Consumers should be able to buy laptops without any specific operating system, and should not have to pay the license price if they don't want to,” asserts the site, and they have information and forms to help you get your cash back. Refund4Freedom doesn't just help PC buyers in the quest to get Windows refunds; they have three key demands. Prevention is better than cure, right? The first demand is that “Device manufacturers and vendors should not impose an operating system or software on consumers, and should not force them to pay for software that they don't want.” This is central to the site’s message and purpose. However, it also wants to promote the idea that consumers should have the right to buy hardware without pre-installed software and see the price of the product with and without Windows, etc. Refund4Freedom also urges manufacturers and vendors to clearly outline the steps for requesting and obtaining a refund for pre-installed OSes and software. Of course, the process for consumers should be as friction-free as possible. “Not all manufacturers and vendors are equal.” “Not all manufacturers and vendors are equal,” notes Refund4Freedom on its website. Some are more helpful than others when it comes to refunds. You can read more on the website about each brand surveyed, but it looks like Acer and Lenovo both operate reimbursement procedures for Windows. Asus has a hidden reimbursement procedure, but we only get told of the Italy-centric way to reach out to Asus about it. Dell and HP don’t have any reimbursement procedure for Windows, according to the site. Whichever brand of PC you buy, and the above list is far from exhaustive, you should follow a deliberate rejection procedure. If you intend to shun Windows, Refund4Freedom tells users to start up the PC and take pictures showing the contract clauses addressing reimbursement. Do not format or erase the computer at this stage. The next step is to contact the manufacturer's customer service. Do this in a recordable way, and so email/messaging is encouraged for records. If the above two steps aren’t working out for you, the Refund4Freedom site has a pre-made form you can fill in and forward. However, this is again Italy-centric. For example, towards the end it mentions the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), as well as a ruling by Judge Dr. Mirko Buratti of the Court of Monza… So, perhaps you can swap in some rulings appropriate to your country for this part of the form? Get your favorite LLM to hallucinate some local court rulings for you. Finally, and whatever the outcome, Refund4Freedom asks its readers to report their experience, good or bad, to the aforementioned AGCM. To inspire you, the site includes several user reports of success, and I note one user getting back as much as €150 from Acer (~$175). That was a combination of Windows license reimbursement and a larger legal fee refund. A more typical reimbursement level is roughly $60. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. - Dementoss I suspect some, maybe most system builders, will say they need to install Windows 11 to check the hardware is functional, although surely that could be done using a Live Linux USB stick, for those that don't want Windows 11.Reply - TerryLaze ReplyGet your favorite LLM to hallucinate some local court rulings for you. Wow top tier advice here...go lie on a form that is legally binding...I'm sure it's gonna be fine... - TerryLaze Reply The windows they install is at no point functional, they clone a pre install version of windows that goes through the EULA the first time you boot it.Dementoss said:I suspect some, maybe most system builders, will say they need to install Windows 11 to check the hardware is functional, although surely that could be done using a Live Linux USB stick, for those that don't want Windows 11. - derekullo When I order computers from Dell for work, typically $50K-$100K at a time, we choose the cheapest linux or no OS option since we have a KMS server with volume licenses for Windows 11 Enterprise.Reply https://www.servethehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Windows-10-Pro-for-Workstations.jpg$100 or so dollars saved on each of the 50+ computers we ordered really adds up ! - TheWerewolf It has to be noted that few OEMs pay full retail price for a Windows license. That tends to be small batch OEMs who bundle a retail copy.Reply I'm sure it's more now, but the last time I checked, it was more like $25 per machine on minimums of 1,000 machines.
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