The 'Some Ordinary Gamers' channel found a Windows 11 24H2 ISO that's claimed to be a Chinese 'Government Edition.' The ISO reportedly came from a Google Drive and "should be used for evaluation purposes, as you cannot 'legally' install it on your PC." Mutathar notes the dangers of using customized Windows 11 ISOs but explores this version to show how many elements can be stripped out, keeping resource consumption low.
Mutahar criticized the potential dangers of custom Windows 11 from random sources in his previous videos, as these ISOs can contain malware and backdoors. Instead, it is best to download Windows 11 from the official source and use the known debloating utility, Windows 11 Debloat, from Github.
Mutahar further explains that the existence of a 'government edition' Windows 11 is partially true, as electronic software distribution (ESD) packages can be found for Windows 11 Enterprise G, an abbreviation for the government. Mutahar installed this ISO on his virtual machine to show how many applications are removed from this version and how many resources it saves on a system with six cores and 8GB of RAM. This customized OS consumed much fewer resources than standard versions of Windows 11 Home or Pro because certain native applications were not running in real-time because they were removed.
While there are many native applications still present in this version, some were removed -- namely Windows Store, Microsoft's Edge Browser, and Windows Defender. The absence of these apps is also likely because they would transmit system data to Microsoft's servers, which would be unacceptable for any government organization, let alone China, including military applications.
As reported earlier, the Chinese government uses its own Ubuntu and HarmonyuOS operating systems as part of its effort to be reliant on local options, including hardware components like its Longsoon and Zhaoxin CPUs. However, the Windows operating system is still needed for certain tasks due to its widespread use globally.
Is WIndows 11 Enterprise G ISO the real deal?
There is a stripped-down Windows 11 version made for a Chinese government-owned company that supplies hardware and software solutions to its civilian and military organizations. However, it's not clear if these ISOs come from that company or somewhere else.
A brief discussion in Microsoft's forum corroborates that Enterprise G is made for the Chinese government. Regarding this ISO, a source explains that it is a fake Windows 11 Enterprise G ISO that's debloated and contains a preinstalled keygen rather than an official license. It also reinvigorates an earlier observation made by Mutahar that one of the dangers is that these ISOs have disabled key functions like Updates and Defender needed for security. Irrespective of the legitimacy of these ISOs, the risk overshadows the benefits, and hence the ISO is best avoided.
Official ISOs are easily available through Microsoft, and should the user need to debloat, there are trusted utilities and scripts available. Tiny11 is one such utility that we reported about earlier, providing options to remove things like Copilot functions, turn off automatic updates, remove or disable Windows Defender, and remove the Windows Store. While many would like to remove some options to make Windows 11 lighter, it is best to not remove certain key essentials for the sake of security.
