5 ms·

It’s called Windows 10 LTSC and it’s great. Sadly, Microsoft won’t sell it to you. But it’s... out there.

EvanAnderson 5y ago
At least until Microsoft wraps-up the Open Business licensing program you can still acquire LTSC thru that program. You'll have to work with a reseller. It's a bit of a pain, but it's not too bad. I've used Dell and CDW in the past. The minimum volume license buy is 5 licenses. Any good reseller will sell you 1 copy of LTSC and 4 of the cheapest SKU in the catalog (usually $5-10 / ea) to get your volume license contract started. After that you used to be able to purchase piecemeal for 2 years before you need to fulfill the minimum purchase again. The licenses themselves are perpetual. With the program being killed I'd treat it as a one-time purchase and assume you have no further rights after October (I think) of this year. I don't like it, but it's not too hard to do either. The trick is finding a reseller who will leave you alone after the purchase (no sales calls, etc).
- artificialLimbs 5y ago
  Im unconcerned about the calls but this doesn’t sound feasible for >500 seats.
  - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
    If you have that kind of volume can't you buy LTSC from relatively normal channels?
    - EvanAnderson 5y ago
      The Open License program is a "normal" channel. Many small and medium businesses acquired their licenses for MSFT products that way.
  - EvanAnderson 5y ago
    LTSC isn't intended for day-to-day PC users. MSFT would happily sell you licensed for 500 seats. I have had Customers with >500 seat Open License contracts. (It's all pretty meaningless now since the program is effectively dead anyway...)
ZeWaren 5y ago
I'm glad I'm allowed to run LTSC. I've never seen a desktop OS that stable. I run it for months without reboots with a heavy usage and I never got any problems with it since I started using it in 2015.
- huhtenberg 5y ago
  I find that LTSC still sneaks in an OS update (and a reboot) every now and then, even though it is not supposed to be doing that.
  - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
    No, that's as expected! LTSC still gets updated, but only for security issues—they will never change anything else. That means the updates are smaller and less frequent, and rarely break anything. Personally, this is exactly what I want. There are registry keys which will fully turn off automatic updates, if you want. I use these in Virtual Machines, since I don't boot those frequently and they're supposed to be disposable. I'm pretty sure they also work in Enterprise and Pro, btw.
    - huhtenberg 5y ago
      For what it's worth one of LTSC updates dropped the display frame rate to 5 fps until the machine was rebooted and another spawned a temporary process that started eating 80% of CPU. Both happened in a span of just several months.
thrower123 5y ago
It's absurd how much better LTSC is than publicly available versions of Win 10. If you have enterprise licensing or MSDN subscriptions or Partner connections, the only reason not to run it is if you really, really need WSL. Even then, I think you can get it enabled if you really need to.
- yellowapple 5y ago
  > the only reason not to run it is if you really, really need WSL. Even then, I think you can get it enabled if you really need to. Indeed you can; I don't recall any difference between LTSC and non-LTSC when it comes to enabling WSL (though I haven't tried since WSL 2 came around, so maybe things changed).
- Scramblejams 5y ago
  Another reason not to run it is if any of the games you play require > 1809.
  - thrower123 5y ago
    What would an example of that be?
    - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
      Flight Simulator comes to mind, but that's the only one I know of (and it’s pretty unique in a lot of ways). My Windows PC is a gaming machine pretty much exclusively, and it runs LTSC.
    - Scramblejams 5y ago
      Yep, sibling is correct. I'd used LTSC for all my gaming until MSFS came out, then I had to switch to Windows 10. Looking forward to the next LTSC version so I can switch back, hope it has WSL2.
bserge 5y ago
FWIW, Enterprise is the same, but with more updates... which sadly install at whatever time W10 wants with no regard for active hours (not sure what's up with that).
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  In an enterprise you’re supposed to manage the computers, run your own updates server, set the install time yourself etcetera
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  The updates are one of the things I like about LTSC though. It gets security updates only, so the behavior of the system never changes out from under me, and the updates download and install very quickly!
patentatt 5y ago
I find Win10 Enterprise to be almost as good, with some group policies set (like "Turn off Microsoft consumer experiences" and "Restrict Internet communication," among others) it is quite stable and unobtrusive.
lozaning 5y ago
Windows 10 LTS is all fun and games until you've got a samsung laptop, where the only supported way to load all the drivers is through their app on the Windows store, which does not work/isnt installed on LTS. Honestly though, not having my hardware volume keys work is a small price to pay for not having the regular windows 10 garbage.
- fl0wenol 5y ago
  There's got to be other ways to get the drivers, usually the hardware is generic enough if you pull the PCI ids you can get them from Windows update or manufacturers' websites, right? Or is it all proprietary Samsung silicon...

At least until Microsoft wraps-up the Open Business licensing program you can still acquire LTSC thru that program. You'll have to work with a reseller. It's a bit of a pain, but it's not too bad. I've used Dell and CDW in the past. The minimum volume license buy is 5 licenses. Any good reseller will sell you 1 copy of LTSC and 4 of the cheapest SKU in the catalog (usually $5-10 / ea) to get your volume license contract started. After that you used to be able to purchase piecemeal for 2 years before you need to fulfill the minimum purchase again. The licenses themselves are perpetual. With the program being killed I'd treat it as a one-time purchase and assume you have no further rights after October (I think) of this year. I don't like it, but it's not too hard to do either. The trick is finding a reseller who will leave you alone after the purchase (no sales calls, etc).

artificialLimbs 5y ago
Im unconcerned about the calls but this doesn’t sound feasible for >500 seats.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  If you have that kind of volume can't you buy LTSC from relatively normal channels?
  - EvanAnderson 5y ago
    The Open License program is a "normal" channel. Many small and medium businesses acquired their licenses for MSFT products that way.
- EvanAnderson 5y ago
  LTSC isn't intended for day-to-day PC users. MSFT would happily sell you licensed for 500 seats. I have had Customers with >500 seat Open License contracts. (It's all pretty meaningless now since the program is effectively dead anyway...)

ZeWaren 5y ago

I'm glad I'm allowed to run LTSC. I've never seen a desktop OS that stable. I run it for months without reboots with a heavy usage and I never got any problems with it since I started using it in 2015.

huhtenberg 5y ago
I find that LTSC still sneaks in an OS update (and a reboot) every now and then, even though it is not supposed to be doing that.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  No, that's as expected! LTSC still gets updated, but only for security issues—they will never change anything else. That means the updates are smaller and less frequent, and rarely break anything. Personally, this is exactly what I want. There are registry keys which will fully turn off automatic updates, if you want. I use these in Virtual Machines, since I don't boot those frequently and they're supposed to be disposable. I'm pretty sure they also work in Enterprise and Pro, btw.
  - huhtenberg 5y ago
    For what it's worth one of LTSC updates dropped the display frame rate to 5 fps until the machine was rebooted and another spawned a temporary process that started eating 80% of CPU. Both happened in a span of just several months.

thrower123 5y ago

It's absurd how much better LTSC is than publicly available versions of Win 10. If you have enterprise licensing or MSDN subscriptions or Partner connections, the only reason not to run it is if you really, really need WSL. Even then, I think you can get it enabled if you really need to.

yellowapple 5y ago
> the only reason not to run it is if you really, really need WSL. Even then, I think you can get it enabled if you really need to. Indeed you can; I don't recall any difference between LTSC and non-LTSC when it comes to enabling WSL (though I haven't tried since WSL 2 came around, so maybe things changed).
Scramblejams 5y ago
Another reason not to run it is if any of the games you play require > 1809.
- thrower123 5y ago
  What would an example of that be?
  - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
    Flight Simulator comes to mind, but that's the only one I know of (and it’s pretty unique in a lot of ways). My Windows PC is a gaming machine pretty much exclusively, and it runs LTSC.
  - Scramblejams 5y ago
    Yep, sibling is correct. I'd used LTSC for all my gaming until MSFS came out, then I had to switch to Windows 10. Looking forward to the next LTSC version so I can switch back, hope it has WSL2.

bserge 5y ago

FWIW, Enterprise is the same, but with more updates... which sadly install at whatever time W10 wants with no regard for active hours (not sure what's up with that).

tinus_hn 5y ago
In an enterprise you’re supposed to manage the computers, run your own updates server, set the install time yourself etcetera
Wowfunhappy 5y ago
The updates are one of the things I like about LTSC though. It gets security updates only, so the behavior of the system never changes out from under me, and the updates download and install very quickly!

patentatt 5y ago

I find Win10 Enterprise to be almost as good, with some group policies set (like "Turn off Microsoft consumer experiences" and "Restrict Internet communication," among others) it is quite stable and unobtrusive.

lozaning 5y ago

Windows 10 LTS is all fun and games until you've got a samsung laptop, where the only supported way to load all the drivers is through their app on the Windows store, which does not work/isnt installed on LTS. Honestly though, not having my hardware volume keys work is a small price to pay for not having the regular windows 10 garbage.

fl0wenol 5y ago
There's got to be other ways to get the drivers, usually the hardware is generic enough if you pull the PCI ids you can get them from Windows update or manufacturers' websites, right? Or is it all proprietary Samsung silicon...