Here some interesting stories about people who managed to get a refund on an unwanted and unused Windows license:
(the information has been also added to the course now)
If computer suppliers don't offer a system without Windows, ask for a refund on the Windows license. A guy here
at the Fedora Linux forums, who bought an Asus laptop managed to get a
refund, after a lot of fuss and also Dell seems to have some kind of
policy on this. You can read more about that here.
If you want to do this, you should of course not install Windows to
your system because then you have agreed on the Windows Eula. Best is
to film or photograph yourself while rejecting the agreement. The guy
at the Fedora forum had to sent his laptop to a local Asus supplier (at
his own costs) so that they could remove Windows for him or check that
he had done it himself. In his case it was an OEM version. For non-OEM
versions you should turn to Microsoft to get a refund.