China’s Ministry of State Security has issued a directive to certain state-linked organizations, instructing them to remove a tailored version of Windows 10 from their systems. This move, reported by Bloomberg, is said to expedite a planned phase-out initially set for February 2027. The announcement has triggered a notable surge in the shares of domestic operating system vendors, with Hunan Kylinsec and Archermind both reaching the Shanghai stock exchange’s daily limit of 20%, while China National Software saw a 10% increase.
Data Security Concerns Prompt Action
According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the directive stems from data security apprehensions, although specific vulnerabilities that have raised Beijing’s alarm were not disclosed. The software in question is a government-specific edition developed by C&M Information Technologies (CMIT), a joint venture formed in 2016 between Microsoft and the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group, which holds the majority stake. This customized build is based on Windows 10 Enterprise but has been modified to exclude OneDrive and other consumer-oriented features, disable certain native functions, and ensure that updates and activation processes remain within China. Additionally, it allows government users to implement Chinese encryption algorithms in place of Microsoft’s standard cryptography.
Since its launch in 2017, this specialized edition has been piloted by various central agencies, including China Customs and Shanghai’s Commission of Economy and Informatization. In a broader context, the Chinese government has previously urged central agencies and state-owned enterprises to eliminate foreign-branded computers entirely. In response, a domestic ecosystem has emerged to meet this demand, featuring operating systems such as Kylin V10, UnionTech’s UOS, and Huawei’s HarmonyOS 5 laptops, along with hardware like Huawei’s Qingyun desktops powered by the homegrown Kirin 9000X processor.
Despite these efforts, data from StatCounter reveals that the campaign to transition away from foreign software has yet to make significant inroads into the consumer market. As of July 2026, Windows maintained a commanding 87.64% share of desktop web traffic in China, with Windows 10 alone accounting for 43.56% of Windows usage. This figure stands in contrast to Windows 11’s 50.01%, a mere ten months after mainstream support for Windows 10 concluded. Alarmingly, approximately two in five Chinese desktops are still operating on an unsupported version of Microsoft’s software, highlighting the gap that CMIT’s edition was designed to bridge for government users.