In the past, PC refurbishers have found some difficulties in gaining licence permissions from companies like Microsoft to enable them to use software in re-used machines.
But Microsoft says it now wishes to recruit commercial, public and non-profit computer refurbishers to its “Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers” (MAR) programme.
Organisations signed up to the MAR scheme will be authorised to re-install Microsoft's Windows operating system onto donated PCs destineed for schools, charities, non-profit organisations and “under-served communities”, the company said.
Windows
Jean Philippe Courtois, chief executive of Microsoft's Europe, Middle East and Africa division, said: “In the last 12 months alone, refurbished PCs re-installed with Windows have been supplied to more than 1,000 UK schools, colleges and charities.”
Microsoft is carrying out the programme as a “core element” of its corporate social and environmental responsibility activities.
It said most computers donated by large companies for refurbishment are typically three years old, so the MAR programme upgrades the software to the newer Windows 98 Second Edition for a “nominal charge” covering materials and software operations.
The refurbished machines are then accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity and a special End User Licence as evidence of a legally installed operating system, the company said.
Commenting on the programme, Jan Tallis, chief executive of the educational recycling project Tools for Schools in the UK, said: “This change will make life so much simpler for our donors and ourselves but, more importantly, it will mean that schools and educational projects will get access to vital information technology resources.”
Organisations both commercial and non-profit can apply to join the MAR programme at Microsoft's website: www.microsoft.com/emea/refurbishers
Register for free to comment