Huawei's Microsoft Windows license for PCs expires this month, company launching PCs with Harmony OS: Report

Microsoft's supply license to Huawei expires this month, so the company can no longer legally produce and sell PCs with the Windows operating system unless it gets an extension, reports MyDrivers. As a result, the company might have to rely on open-source Linux distros that do not come from American companies or its own HarmonyOS. The company has previously announced it won't use Windows for future generations of its PCs, and the company is now said to be releasing a PC in April that comes with its own homegrown OS.

While HarmonyOS could be a viable solution for China, without Windows, Huawei's laptops wouldn't gain much traction in Europe and the U.S.

According to MyDrivers, Yu Chengdong (Richard Yu), executive director and chairman of Huawei's consumer business unit, stated that as the company is on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List and American companies must obtain an export license to deal with it, Huawei might not get a Windows license renewal from Microsoft. As a result, existing PCs from Huawei could be the company's last and final systems based on Windows unless Microsoft obtains an export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to sell Windows to the troubled company.

As a result, the company would have to use open-source Linux distributions and the company's homemade HarmonyOS, which is believed to be primarily based on open-source Android. The company has also announced its Harmony OS NEXT, which purportedly doesn't rely upon Android.

According to the report, Huawei is set to introduce a new 'AI PC' laptop in April that will run its own Kunpeng CPU, HarmonyOS for PCs, and various DeepSeek LLM-based applications to justify the 'AI PC' moniker in its name. That aligns with the company's prior statements that its done with Windows.

Additionally, Huawei plans to launch the MateBook D16 Linux Edition, its first laptop running on Linux. The new model will retain the same hardware specifications as the existing MateBook D16, the only difference being the switch from Windows to Linux as its operating system.

Windows continues to dominate the desktop and laptop operating system market considerably. According to StatCounter, Windows was installed on 70.65% of PCs as of February 2025. Apple's macOS is the second most popular choice, commanding roughly 16% of the market. Meanwhile, Linux's share was around 3.8%, while ChromeOS commanded 1.81%.