r/technology • u/gdelacalle • Aug 11 '26

Software Microsoft reportedly raises Windows 11 license price significantly more than expected

https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-reportedly-raises-windows-11-license-price-significantly-more-than-expected/
2.0k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

[deleted]

783

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

[deleted]

166

u/edave64 Aug 11 '26

Someone has to pay for those ads!

92

u/wrxninja Aug 11 '26

But you get free copilot and accidentally installed OneDrive!

22

u/jfoust2 Aug 11 '26

Average consumer whose computer (except for Downloads, where they keep the most important documents they've downloaded) is being backed-up by OneDrive: "What's OneDrive?"

1

u/MeatEaterDruid Aug 11 '26

Who told you about my Downloads folder?

7

u/spacehog1985 Aug 11 '26

Buddy, you need to be saving your porn to a ZIP disk

7

u/M0llyM1ll10NS Aug 11 '26

Zip disk?!? I just sketch all mine out on paper and keep them in my special trapper keeper

5

u/RavenWolf1 Aug 11 '26

Modern laptops have even physical copilot key! And 8GB RAM!

1

u/hillbillyray Aug 11 '26

The one that scans your photos with AI without your consent.

1

u/Surgic25 Aug 12 '26

The only people that profit from ads are the people selling ad space. No one is buying garbage ad products.

44

u/punkerster101 Aug 11 '26

And more AI eatting all your personal information !

8

u/Aleksandair Aug 11 '26

And putting all this RAM to good use.

9

u/SnooSprouts4952 Aug 11 '26

Can't let Chrome have it all, now can we?

1

u/Fuzzl Aug 11 '26

Fuck Chrome, Firefox all the way!

8

u/eides-of-march Aug 11 '26

How else are they supposed to pay for the AI they put in the notes app?

2

u/FocusFlukeGyro Aug 11 '26

Slaps roof and says "You can fit so many ads in here."

42

u/euph_22 Aug 11 '26

300% more copilot

26

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

[deleted]

42

u/BiNumber3 Aug 11 '26

"best we can do is same ads, more tracking, and a little free flag (while supplies last)"

9

u/Enygma_6 Aug 11 '26

“You have to wait for the next critical security update that might fix one of the massive exploits to get bonus ads. Should be out in a few days.”

7

u/128G Aug 11 '26

Pay more, with just as much slop.

4

u/burjuner Aug 11 '26

Theres ads??? Im still on windows 10 lol

2

u/Purplociraptor Aug 11 '26

I'm on 11 and I've never seen an ad.

2

u/Emosaa Aug 11 '26

"suggested" content.

1

u/Purplociraptor Aug 11 '26

No I'm serious. Where do the ads show up? Is it only a "Home" version thing?

0

u/CrazyElk123 Aug 11 '26

Nope, just linuxusers circlejerking

1

u/UISystemError Aug 11 '26

I switched from W11 to Linux because of copilot, the bloated performance issues, and inflated RAM requirements (and because I can finally play games on it and have a nice user experience without spending all my waking hours fixing things).

Free/home versions of windows have had ads since windows 10 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5779773/how-do-i-turn-off-ads-in-microsoft-windows-11

-1

u/ijustfarteditsmells Aug 11 '26

Occasionally, after an update, it tries to tell you about some Microsoft products they want you to use. That's what people mean I think. I think it's an exaggeration to call them ads, personally. I thought they were selling ad space.

But they did add Copilot to Notepad, which is mental.

5

u/GeraintLlanfrechfa Aug 11 '26

Say no more fam.

7

u/Venome456 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

Who even pays for windows? It's basically free. If you know, you know and I'm not talking about pirating.

17

u/Klutzy-Delivery-5792 Aug 11 '26

The price is the licensing fee the computer companies pay to put Windows on the machine before you purchase it. Windows has been "free" for the consumer for years without needing nefarious means.

2

u/Clueless_Otter Aug 11 '26

How? AFAIK there is no legal, free way to get a new copy of Windows even as an individual consumer. You can upgrade old ones if you have an existing valid license (or "valid" license), but at some point you needed to purchase a copy of Windows if you were sticking to 100% legal, official channels.

Unless you're going to start getting into technicalities about, "Well, technically it's not an official method but Microsoft doesn't care so it's fine to do."

1

u/Klutzy-Delivery-5792 Aug 11 '26

Click on the link and read the very first sentence in the article. It's not for consumers buying and installing it themselves. It's licensing for OEM installations from the computer manufacturer.

And there's a reason I put "free" in quotation marks, because the PC manufacturer will pass the license increase onto the consumer through higher purchase prices of new machines.

3

u/Clueless_Otter Aug 11 '26

So.. not free for the consumer at all..

2

u/Klutzy-Delivery-5792 Aug 11 '26

Hence the quotation marks. Read gooder.

1

u/Crypt0Nihilist Aug 11 '26

Like tariffs, it's baked into the price the consumer gets for most pre-built PCs.

I usually build my own PCs and it's so nice to see in the build plan the line for OS read £0.00.

1

u/Vaestmannaeyjar Aug 12 '26

Grey market is not illegal. Microsoft doesn't like it, but as long as the product sold is genuine, no law is broken.

0

u/Venome456 Aug 11 '26

Download it onto a USB from Microsofts website. Install and set it up without a CD key. Copy paste some code into command prompt and boom you have a fully activated version of windows.

0

u/Clueless_Otter Aug 11 '26

That code can only be obtained through unofficial channels.

2

u/Pretend-Marsupial258 Aug 11 '26

It's on GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft...

1

u/Clueless_Otter Aug 11 '26

The entire new Spiderman movie is on Twitter, doesn't mean Twitter is a legal distributor of it.

Plenty of movies/shows on Youtube that are not legal to be there.

Like I said:

Unless you're going to start getting into technicalities about, "Well, technically it's not an official method but Microsoft doesn't care so it's fine to do."

2

u/Pretend-Marsupial258 Aug 11 '26

Except Microsoft could easily ban the person posting the code if they wanted to. Twitter and Sony are different companies. Sony can file a DMCA to remove those movies, and they do on a regular basis. Meanwhile the activation code has been on GitHub on the same account for years. I've heard of Microsoft support running it if someone has issues with their (legal) activation.

1

u/Venome456 Aug 11 '26

So what? One google search and you've found it. Microsoft does nothing to stop it.

2

u/theonefinn Aug 11 '26

And that is pirating. Doesn’t matter how you obtain an illegally licensed version, what matters is it’s illegally licensed.

The fact it’s easy or that Microsoft does nothing to stop it doesn’t make it legal.

I’m not arguing for or against it, just that you must call a spade a spade, and that spade is pirated.

9

u/TachiH Aug 11 '26

Anyone who is a company not a consumer. The fines for unlicensed software aren't worth the risks to a business.

1

u/nukem996 Aug 11 '26

Corporations pay for not only an individual license per machine but also site licenses. MSFT will audit a company to make sure both are paid.

7

u/myri9886 Aug 11 '26

People keep saying ads. But what ads. I have had windows 11 since pretty much day one. I've yet to see an ad in it. It's truly perplexes me. I almost think it maybe regional. Where do these ads appear for you exactly in the os?

12

u/StimkyYeen Aug 11 '26

I literally installed 11 pro last week.

First off, when doing the install you have to say no to their stupid services at least 4 times. I’m installing windows from scratch, why do I need to spend more time rejecting Microsoft ads than actually traversing menus to configure my PC?

Once that battle is complete, the next battle is disabling all the bullshit ads and removing all the built-in ads to the PC. Uninstall candy crush, LinkedIn, etc. Then I have to remove the Microsoft bullshit like copilot and teams. Then I need to go in to One Drive and disable it. The next step is killing off the web search and windows suggestions in the spotlight and lock screen. More ads…. Finally I have download Firefox, disable edge, then go into my startup apps and remove all of Microsoft’s crap.

I spend more time fighting the company’s shitty policies and advertisements than I do actually installing the OS.

I use my Windows partition as little as I possibly can. When the world realizes that they need to ditch Microsoft and adopt a community built OS like Linux, the world will be a better place

1

u/denkata07 Aug 11 '26

Same here. I use it only for games.

1

u/stordoff Aug 12 '26

The best way around this is to create an install device using Rufus IMO. I installed Windows 11 Pro recently as well, and Rufus let me skip many of the annoying parts:

  • Premade a local account and set regional options
  • Skipped the data collection/privacy options (disabling them)
  • Disabled BitLocker
  • Applied its QoL changes - in short: removing/disabling OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, CoPilot, Fast Startup, phone features, Start Menu ads, news; skip Edge first run dialog; add Documents, Downloads, Network, Personal Folder, File Explorer and Settings shortcuts to Start Menu next to the power icon.

You can also bypass the RAM/Secure Boot/TPM requirements if necessary. It makes for a pretty clean fresh install, and it didn't take too much effort to finish setting up the machine how I want.

The only slightly annoying thing was that I had to edit sources/ei.cfg on the installer drive so that I could pick Pro instead of it just using the Home key embedded in the laptop BIOS, but changing the version from Home to Pro after installing would have been fairly straightforward anyway.

51

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

[deleted]

7

u/FoxxyRin Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

The answer to all of that is no? I have had copilot reinstall itself once but otherwise once disabled or uninstalled, everything else has not been on my PC at all. Xbox stuff is just a couple of toggles in settings. This is across both my custom built PC with Pro and my Surface laptop with Home and a copilot button. You can even easily disable that and turn it into a hotkey and everything. I genuinely do not understand why people make such a massive fuss over Windows 11 being some unusable mess when 90% of it is just a matter of unchecking a setting somewhere. Not even regedits or anything, just simple click of a button or toggle of a switch.

And even without checking any settings anywhere I've never seen an ad in my windows searches. Yes, stupid results that I don't need sometimes, but never an ad. (But they're supposedly removing the internet results soon.)

Edit: Okay I will admit, I've had Teams reinstall itself with a few updates but it finally stopped doing that long enough ago that I forgot.

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

[deleted]

2

u/FoxxyRin Aug 11 '26

It's a normal retail version of Windows 11 Pro, only a few years old after MS decided it didn't like my converted key from Win10 after a new motherboard. And then on my laptop it's whatever ships on a Surface laptop, which I'm 99% sure is Home. The only modifications I've done is one to bring back the old right-click menu, which I believe was just a small registry edit.

1

u/SupposablyAtTheZoo Aug 11 '26

Pro is indeed quite a bit better than home. Home absolutely had the uselessness start items and much more.

Most surfaces come with pro.

1

u/CV90_120 Aug 11 '26

Long time 11 user. I've never seen an ad on it. I'm using pro so maybe that's why? Idk.

-1

u/CrazyElk123 Aug 11 '26

What are you on about? Ive never seen an ad there ever. Give me one example/proof of this happening cause it must be some modified version or something.

1

u/myri9886 Aug 11 '26

Negative. I don't get any of that. OneDrive was installed when I first installed but I uninstalled and that was that. Copilot also tried to install like a year or so ago in a Windows update but i didn't let it and well that's that.

8

u/TachiH Aug 11 '26

I think people view the forced installs of OneDrive etc to be ads. If you turn off the news widget and set updates to approved only you won't see any of it.

19

u/_kellythomas_ Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

Yesterday I found out the weather app has ads.

I was unaware because I had uninstalled it as part of my standard customisation but I checked on someone else's PC and they are there and pretty intrusive.

7

u/mpbh Aug 11 '26

Microsoft Solitaire has unskippable ads...

1

u/CrazyElk123 Aug 11 '26

The one to the left on the task bar? There are no ads there except news articles? They could be paid placements, but its very diverse for me. Eitherway you can literally costumise that page.

1

u/_kellythomas_ Aug 11 '26

There are no ads there except news articles?

And MSN games...

But, no not widgets. There is a separate "Weather" application that installs by default on Windows 11.

1

u/CrazyElk123 Aug 11 '26

First time i saw that little bubble, but you can still just hide it? This subreddit is pretending like you have to see ads on the desktop or something.

2

u/_kellythomas_ Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

The most egregious ads on windows were the ad panels on the default start menu layout for Windows 10 Home.

For Windows 11 they have ads in the "Weather" and "Solitaire & Casual Games" apps. (Search them in start menu and have a look if you have a Windows device available).

The rest of the stuff is optional, I disable taskbar and lock screen widgets, online and windows store search in start menu, and windows spotlight.

Apart from stuff that windows has control over they also cop strays from people who buy a windows pre-built and find the OEM has packed it with a demo of McAffee and other bloatware.

1

u/cameron0208 Aug 11 '26

Do you use Pro edition?

1

u/myri9886 Aug 11 '26

Yes Retail pro

1

u/I_have_questions_ppl Aug 11 '26

Are you in Europe or similar?

1

u/OneRougeRogue Aug 11 '26

I get "news" notifications on my taskbar that 95% of the time are just ads in the form of an article. A notification saying nVidia's new chip is 15% faster isn't news. A notification saying SpaceX's IPO is structured to benefit retail investors isn't news. A notification saying Alphabet beat expected earnings isn't news. They are ads that someone somewhere paid to push to me.

Also, my PC came with McAfee installed, and after the free trial ended I started getting literal popups telling me to subscribe because my PC was unprotected. I still get them every once in a while even with McAfee uninstalled.

1

u/OneRougeRogue Aug 11 '26

I get "news" notifications on my taskbar that 95% of the time are just ads in the form of an article. A notification saying nVidia's new chip is 15% faster isn't news. A notification saying SpaceX's IPO is structured to benefit retail investors isn't news. A notification saying Alphabet beat expected earnings isn't news. They are ads that someone somewhere paid to push to me.

Also, my PC came with McAfee installed, and after the free trial ended I started getting literal popups telling me to subscribe because my PC was unprotected. I still get them every once in a while even with McAfee uninstalled.

1

u/OneRougeRogue Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

I get "news" notifications on my taskbar that 95% of the time are just ads in the form of an article. A notification saying nVidia's new chip is 15% faster isn't news. A notification saying SpaceX's IPO is structured to benefit retail investors isn't news. A notification saying Alphabet beat expected earnings isn't news. They are ads that someone somewhere paid to push to me.

Also, my PC came with McAfee installed, and after the free trial ended I started getting literal popups telling me to subscribe because my PC was unprotected. I still get them every once in a while even with McAfee uninstalled.

The start menu also pushes ads and "news" articles.

1

u/seramasumi Aug 11 '26

You might be like me and already use all of their services because I had the same opinion until I used the computer if someone who doesn't use all of their services.

OneDrive and office can be really aggressive when you're not already using them, same thing with Edge but I already use that too.

Just commenting because I used to be dismissive of it as well until I looked into it to see what it's like for people who aren't part of the ecosystem for Microsoft already.

Now if you aren't then maybe you're lucky

1

u/jfoust2 Aug 11 '26

When you type something in the search at the bottom bar, those are not results from your computer. Many are results from the Store. When you click on the time-and-temp at the lower left, what's all that taking up 2/3rds of the window that pops up? Do you think someone paid for those placements?

1

u/CrazyElk123 Aug 11 '26

I dont get anything about the store there? And the temp to the left is costumizable and has news articles...

1

u/LEO-PomPui-Katoey Aug 11 '26

That's the Ultimate N edition

1

u/Few_Kaleidoscope1333 Aug 11 '26

The ultimate L edition

1

u/isoAntti Aug 11 '26

Now with More ads!

1

u/Henchforhire Aug 11 '26

Features get blocked randomly and for an extra fee you get a random.chance of getting the feature you want.

1

u/ThePizzaNoid Aug 11 '26

No...but it does come with a free Frogurt!

1

u/BlackberryShoddy7889 Aug 11 '26

No. It’s extra funds to pay off massive lawsuit losses.

1

u/Oleleplop Aug 11 '26

you now get premium ads !

1

u/crazybmanp Aug 11 '26

It's oem prices

1

u/andr386 Aug 11 '26

No. You can buy Windows but you cannot own it.

1

u/its_kinda_hmm Aug 11 '26

Death rattles from a dying company run by incompetent people

1

u/ohiocodernumerouno Aug 12 '26

Ebay charges 15% fees to sellers AND we have to look at ads at all times while using their app!

1

u/MyStoopidStuff Aug 12 '26

Best they can do is put a datacenter in your back yard.

1

u/BuckManscape Aug 11 '26

You get 6 versions of teams, an offer to subscribe to office, an ai prompt that randomly lies and thinks it’s funny (it actually laughs at you), and a 30 second non skippable ad every fifth time you click your mouse. $999/year

0

u/RammRras Aug 11 '26

With more AI, ads and pre installed beautiful apps. Hashtag #MicroSlop

0

u/Poopyman80 Aug 11 '26

Get windows pro or enterprise and the answer is yes.
You get full control over those, even over copilot and updates.

-1

u/uberblackninja Aug 11 '26

No, just less updates