While it is extremely difficult to get an OEM system that doesn't have Macro$uck installed :mad: they can't force you to keep it. Here is what you can do:
1) After connecting the new system, but before you turn it on for the first time, place the boot diskette of your OS of choice in the slot.
2) Turn the system on. In this case, Winders will never boot up. Follow the normal install procedure. This way, you have never used the M$ software.
3) Carefully document *exactly* what you did. Then take out the copy of the Winders EULA that came with your new system, and print "DECLINED" on it. Send via regestered mail to Redmond. Return any manuals or CDs or other paper work. These must be returned *unopened*! This is most important. Explain that you are declining to accept the EULA, that you don't want whatever version of Winders they tried to stick you with, and that you - in accordance with the EULA - are returning the software for a refund.
4) Send copy to your OEM, and explain to them that you don't appreciate the fact that they didn't offer you your choice of *non*-Macro$uck software. (I, not too long ago, checked out an OEM whose only proffered choice was Win XP, which will *never* disgrace any system I run, or Win ME - WHUDDA DEAL! :eek: ) While there isn't anything the OEM can do about it, it lets them know that not all their customers are necessarily happy with their choice of software. If you don't let them know, then why would they ever change how they do business?
If you do this, by the terms of Macro$uck's *own* EULA, they now owe you a refund for whatever your OEM charges for supplying Winders. They'll have no "wiggle room" by being able to say, well, you used the software, if only to ditch it, therefore you implicitly agreed to accept the EULA, so no refund for you.
As to whether or not you'll actually get that refund, well, that's a whole 'nother story.
[ February 07, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]
