There’s a special edition of Windows 10 made for the Chinese government

Not really surprising, but still interesting: there is a special edition of Windows 10 that Microsoft makes just for the Chinese government, and it’s a bit more uptight than the rest, reports Tech in Asia.

The special Windows edition is reportedly named “Windows 10 Zhuangongban”, literally “Windows 10 Specially-provided Edition”, and it will be exclusively used in China’s governmental offices and state-owned enterprises. The OS is the fruit of an earlier joint venture between Microsoft and a Chinese IT company, China Electronics Technology Group, to form C&M Information Technologies. The joint venture acts as the “exclusive licensor” of Windows 10 in China, and also support customers from the government.

There is reportedly not too many differences between Windows 10 Chinese government version and the one for the rest of the world. The former has less consumer apps from Microsoft – though exactly what was omitted wasn’t made clear – and more management and security controls (and possibly a different aesthetics); it’s still capable of running any Windows program, however.

Microsoft has had it rather rough with the Chinese government in the past few years, with office raids and Windows 8 ban, so the Windows 10 deal is a rather big win for the company, and it’s understandable the company is willing to take steps to push its OS, going so far as to make a special version of it. Windows is not without serious competition in the civil space: in-house Linux-based OS NeoKylin continues to be developed and funded by the Chinese government; Windows 10’s ubiquity in software support, however, will most likely give it an edge.