But you bought it knowing it to be powered by M$ software.
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Not many read the small print!
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Yet another problem with today’s rushed society and the lawyer’s bread & butter.
It seems that the only two options when buying a new computer are Crapple and Micro$oft.
I find it strange that no computer manufacturers offer their products with a third party OS (eg, Linux), or even without any OS installed.
Are Crapple any better? I don’t think so. There’s no competition in the market. Weren’t China launching their own OS? Or was it a different country?
The Chinese are still trying to compete:- 
Another Chinese computer operating system: Will the UOS succeed? - CGTN
Oh I couldn’t possibly buy a Chinese computer. I don’t understand all their squiggly letters.
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I did read the smallprint Ted, and was quite aware that I had to accept downloads, so I do…
It doesn’t make it any less painful though…
I’m of the old school, if I buy something, its mine!
This really annoyed me with MS office. So there is something called open office which has older versions similar to word excel etc. It’s free
I bet all this is down to tax treatment :e.g :
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I think that it’s more simple than that, AnnieS.
I’d go for protecting their name & image by, legally, preventing the software from being tampered with.
If you “owned” your package, you could, happily rewrite it, or add/subtract chunks, whilst any publicity, for so doing, might hurt the MS credibility.
Added to which, they can demand that the user keeps the leased package fully up to date, which the user wouldn’t have to do if he owned it.
It’s not just MS, actually, as most software is leased the same way.
The word “Free” is a bit misunderstood, in software terms, for example, Free antivirus packages are usually minimum packages without all of the features. Those using them are, to a degree, guinea pigs automatically feeding back the details of virii as they get hit. Once you ask for the full version you get a
another lease and pay for it.
That’s my opinion.
There might be exceptions.
what’s the financial incentive for them?
I agree.
I paid for a computer. It had Windows installed, but there was no choice in the matter and I paid for a machine that will perform certain tasks and I disagree with being ordered to accept Microsoft’s updates if I don’t want them.
However, the solution is easy. Simply set your active hours as 0800 to 0200 and state that you are on a metered connection. However, don’t start up your computer between 0200 and 0800. Because of being on a metered connection (though I’m not!), they can’t download updates.
If I ever decide I want to update Windows, I just override the setting.
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It is suggested that there are (depending on who you look at) 1.2 Billion PCs with Windows installed.
That number keeps changing as Customers update their Laptops/POCs on a regular basis. They seem to do this every four years (guess).
If you guess at an average of 75 pounds for every windows package, on all those Machines, every time they install a new one, , you can see a slight profit in there.
It’s probably a combination of profit and tax breaks. Win win for them given they own the market.
Very True, Annie!
One thing that worries me is that many people buy a new PC, with Windows on, when their older PC already has a fully licenced copy of Windows on, which could be downloaded, transferred to the new PC , using the key code they already have, and save a lot of money.
i.e. Why not just buy the new box, without the Windows software, and use the Windows package off the old one.
Just a thought.
Sometimes old versions of Windows do not support newer hardware. I have just rebuilt my PC and have had to say goodbye to Windows 7 because it can’t handle my motherboard and cpu, which is why I have had to drag myself onto Windows 10, using my old Win7 product number. I can now jump to Win11, but I’ll stick to 10 for now.
I have had, and disposed of, several Windows PCs over the years and have never been aware of this.
Two questions arise:
-
Where do you buy a new PC (a laptop in my case) without a Windows installation, hopefully at reduced cost?
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How easy is it to download the Windows installation from the old computer and upload it to the new one? I wouldn’t know where to start.
I’ll need to apologise, here, as I’ve just checked the legality of my suggestion.
First Point - you can buy a pc/laptop, either in bits to build yourself, or ready built - but without the Software. (https://pcbuilder.net).
There are plenty of people who build their own and there a number of dealers who will help.
Up to that point the prices are very good.
Getting your Windows package onto the new PC looks straight forward, at first, as, at first glance, it might seem to be just a question of downloading a copy of Windows & installing it using you old key codes.
However, I just read the attached guidance as to how the licencing side now works & it looks like there could be a problem.
Can I Copy Windows 10 System Files to Another Drive? - Ask Leo!
I shall ask a local dealer how he gets around this, but having read this guidance, I doubt he’ll be very helpful!
Sorry about the wrong suggestion.
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Thanks Ted, I’m glad you posted this before I rushed into the loft to recover my old windows 7 laptop and duplicate everything from this new’ish laptop…
Good heavens. That’s all way beyond me, I’m afraid! 