Microsoft Store kicks off 12 daily deals with a chunky HP convertible

The holiday sale could be a good time to buy a bloatware-free Windows PC.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday out of the way, Microsoft is moving on to its annual “12 Days of Deals” holiday sale.

Today’s deal is an HP Pavilion x360 convertible laptop for $499, with a 13.3-inch (1366-by-768 resolution) display, Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 1 TB hard drive, weighing in a 3.8 pounds. Microsoft says it’s knocking $150 off the regular price, though this particular configuration is nearly impossible to find elsewhere. (Amazon has a 1080p, 128 GB SSD variant for $560.)

Microsoft is also giving a peek at tomorrow’s deal, a 15.6-inch Lenovo Ideapad 100 for $199. Again it’s a discount of $150. Neither laptop is going to win any awards for looks or performance, but since they’re coming from the Microsoft Store, they won’t have any of the bloatware that comes with most PCs.

Future deals won’t be revealed until the day before they’re available, and each new deal goes live at 12 a.m. Pacific time. Last year’s sale included Xbox bundles, cheap Windows Phones, Bluetooth speakers, and Fitbit bundles, so expect to see more than just laptops between now and December 12.

Why this matters: The Microsoft Store is arguably the best way to buy a new PC, as it allows you to get a clean install of Windows without any unwanted software. It’s worth monitoring these deals to see if anything good pops up, but keep in mind Microsoft is slashing prices on Surface bundles and other PCs in its store.