As you might have heard, China wasn’t too happy about it when Microsoft officially ended support for Windows XP. They called Microsoft irresponsible but ironically enough despite alternatives such as Windows 8 being out there, they chose not to upgrade, claiming that Windows 8 would basically allow them to be spied on. Now China is a pretty huge market and for the Chinese government to ban the installation of Windows 8 on government computers, that’s a lot of computers and business that Microsoft would be missing out on. According to a rumor from WZor, an individual known for his Microsoft-related leaks, it seems that the situation has caused quite a panic over at Microsoft.
The Chinese Government infamously announced recently that they have banned the use of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 on Government PC’s due to the cloud/Modern UI integration. While it may not sound like a big deal on the surface, Microsoft are currently panicking regarding the whole ordeal, and are currently reconsidering a number of plans with Windows 9. We reported on the issue yesterday, but have since found more information regarding the matter. Since the announcement, Microsoft has already made drastic changes to the way employees at Microsoft access test builds. Instead of the builds being freely accessible via Microsoft CorpNet, an employee is required to request a new build which is personally assigned to them, this change will attempt to minimize leaks dramatically. These changes are in effect in China and Russia too, after the announcement of the ban Microsoft has limited test build distribution for employees at Microsoft China and some in Microsoft Russia. This means Microsoft employees in China can’t even request new builds. Things aren’t looking too great right now at Microsoft headquarters.