Sources: Beijing allowed ByteDance and Tencent to each receive about 10,000 Nvidia H200 chips at their mainland China facilities in recent weeks (Zijing Wu/Financial Times)

China's Ministry of State Security has directed certain state-linked organizations to remove a customized version of Windows 10 from their devices, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. This order reportedly hastens a planned retirement of the software scheduled for February 2027, causing Chinese operating system vendors' stocks to surge.

The directive is said to be due to data security concerns, although the specific vulnerabilities Beijing is worried about have not been disclosed. The affected software, developed by C&M Information Technologies (CMIT) in partnership with state-owned China Electronics Technology Group, is a stripped-down version of Windows 10 Enterprise.

It lacks OneDrive and other consumer-focused features, disables certain native functions, and relies on China-based encryption algorithms. The government edition was first piloted by entities such as China Customs and Shanghai's Commission of Economy and Informatization in 2017. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 10 globally in October 2025, making CMIT's version the only Windows build still officially approved for use by the Chinese government.

Despite Microsoft's claim that it has not received any security reports related to this product, the directive signals a further tightening of Beijing's control over the domestic technology landscape.