[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-china-orders-state-agencies-to-drop-custom-windows-10-build":10,"sections":46},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":35,"tags":36,"sources":41,"feedback":45,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":45,"total_tokens":45},5633,"china-orders-state-agencies-to-drop-custom-windows-10-build","China Orders State Agencies to Drop Custom Windows 10 Build","Beijing pushed up retirement of a joint-venture Windows 10 build over unspecified security concerns, even as domestic OS makers rallied on the news.","China has told some state-linked organizations to uninstall its custom government edition of Windows 10, more than six months ahead of schedule.\n\nBloomberg reports that China's Ministry of State Security ordered the removal, citing people familiar with the matter. The software is a government-only build developed by C&M Information Technologies, a 2016 joint venture between Microsoft and state-owned China Electronics Technology Group, based on Windows 10 Enterprise with consumer features stripped, updates kept in-country, and Chinese encryption swapped in for Microsoft's own. Its retirement had been scheduled for February 2027. Word of the order sent Chinese OS vendors surging: Hunan Kylinsec and Archermind both hit Shanghai's 20% daily trading limit, and China National Software climbed 10%. Bloomberg's sources cited data security concerns without specifying what triggered them, and Microsoft says it isn't aware of any security incident affecting the product.\n\nThis build was the only Windows edition still officially sanctioned for Chinese government use after Microsoft ended mainstream Windows 10 support worldwide in October 2025. Pulling it, without naming a replacement, adds pressure on agencies to move faster onto the domestic stack - Kylin, UnionTech's UOS, Huawei's HarmonyOS - that Beijing has been building since it banned Windows 8 from procurement in 2014 and ordered foreign PCs scrapped in 2022.\n\nThe consumer market tells a different story. StatCounter puts Windows at 87.64% of Chinese desktop web traffic in July 2026, and within that Windows install base, Windows 10 still accounts for 43.56% versus 50.01% for Windows 11 - ten months after Microsoft stopped patching Windows 10 for free. Government bans can move in a week. Getting ordinary desktops off an unsupported OS is apparently taking a lot longer.","[\"windows\",\"china\",\"microsoft\",\"cybersecurity\"]","2026-08-18T10:11:42.000Z","2026-08-19T05:06:04.694Z","2026-08-19T05:06:16.517Z","published",null,[24,30],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"editor-r1","editor",1,"The dek claims 'most Chinese desktops still run an unsupported OS,' but the body's own figure (43.56% Windows 10 vs. 50.01% Windows 11) shows that's a minority, not a majority — fix the dek to match the actual data (e.g. 'two in five').","resolved",{"id":31,"reviewer":32,"round":33,"reason":34,"status":29},"publisher-r2","publisher",2,"The traffic-share numbers don't add up: Windows 10 (43.56%) and Windows 11 (50.01%) alone sum to 93.57%, which exceeds the stated 87.64% total for Windows overall.","security",[37,38,39,40],"windows","china","microsoft","cybersecurity",[42],{"name":43,"url":44},"Tom's Hardware","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.tomshardware.com\u002Fsoftware\u002Foperating-systems\u002Fchina-reportedly-orders-state-agencies-to-uninstall-its-government-only-edition-of-windows-10",0,{"sections":47},[48,53,56,61,66,71,76,81,86,91,96,101,106,111],{"name":49,"slug":50,"count":51,"latest_published_at":52},"AI","ai",3293,"2026-08-20T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":54,"slug":35,"count":55,"latest_published_at":52},"Security",435,{"name":57,"slug":58,"count":59,"latest_published_at":60},"Policy","policy",210,"2026-08-19T09:32:27.000Z",{"name":62,"slug":63,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Hardware","hardware",140,"2026-08-19T18:25:42.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",95,"2026-08-18T16:05:00.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Science","science",90,"2026-08-19T18:41:02.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Software","software",73,"2026-08-18T07:51:50.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"Startups","startups",47,"2026-08-19T19:13:46.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":99,"latest_published_at":100},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":102,"slug":103,"count":104,"latest_published_at":105},"General","general",33,"2026-08-18T22:18:13.000Z",{"name":107,"slug":108,"count":109,"latest_published_at":110},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":112,"slug":113,"count":114,"latest_published_at":115},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]