Has anyone used Windows 11 LTSC?

[A&P211]

If anyone uses Windows 11 LTSC, tell me about it.

I am thinking of using it l, to get away from the bloat of windows 11. But does it act like win 11, will game drivers still install and will all games still start and play without issues.

 

[tabascosauz]

If anyone uses Windows 11 LTSC, tell me about it.

I am thinking of using it l, to get away from the bloat of windows 11. But does it act like win 11, will game drivers still install and will all games still start and play without issues.

I've been on it pretty much since the preview image. It's been pretty smooth sailing. All I did was reinstall Store and Game Bar to get windowed VRR working again. LTSC hasn't given me any angst for games.

It's a lot better than having to reinstall every year due to Windows progressively decaying over time, but I'm getting to a point where that is still slowly happening and might still have to reinstall now. Some funny business with windows not saving my display setup for sim hardware. Much better run than regular windows, that's for sure. It's nice when MS just leaves my PC alone and lets Windows be Windows.

 

[A&P211]

I've been on it pretty much since the preview image. It's been pretty smooth sailing. All I did was reinstall Store and Game Bar to get windowed VRR working again. LTSC hasn't given me any angst for games.

It's a lot better than having to reinstall every year due to Windows progressively decaying over time, but I'm getting to a point where that is still slowly happening and might still have to reinstall now. Some funny business with windows not saving my display setup for sim hardware. Much better run than regular windows, that's for sure. It's nice when MS just leaves my PC alone and lets Windows be Windows.

View attachment 404588

So no issues with games, drivers, watching videos with VLC or YouTube.

 

[LabRat 891]

So no issues with games, drivers, watching videos with VLC or YouTube.

Correct. Even IoT Enterprise LTSC is 100% compatible.
-you can even force-reinstall the removed appstore components, etc.

One doesn't really start having problems until you try to daily drive Windows Server (desktop environment)

Do note:
if say... 'DirectX13' or 'XBOX emulation' were released in the future, and were wrapped-into a major Windows 11 Consumer Branch release.
LTSC would not get it as part of Windows Update.

 

[tabascosauz]

So no issues with games, drivers, watching videos with VLC or YouTube.

No issues.

Not sure why there would be, to be honest. All LTSC does is take out the surface level garbage and remove feature updates from the picture. The important stuff you still get.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If anyone uses Windows 11 LTSC, tell me about it.

I've been playing around with it. But using it as a daily driver comes with a number of asterisks and issues. It's not designed for consumer use as a desktop/laptop OS.

I am thinking of using it l, to get away from the bloat of windows 11. But does it act like win 11, will game drivers still install and will all games still start and play without issues.

Yes, everything still runs as it should, but the Windows Store is not included. If you need the Windows store, perhaps a debloated autounattend installer would be a much better route to go.

Chime if you'd like to know more. It's very easy and very effective.

All LTSC does is take out the surface level garbage and remove feature updates from the picture. The important stuff you still get.

There is this though.

All I did was reinstall Store and Game Bar to get windowed VRR working again.

Interesting! I was not able to get the store app to install. Didn't try too hard as it isn't important to me, and couldn't care less about the GameBar..

 

[tabascosauz]

I've been playing around with it. But using it as a daily driver comes with a number of asterisks and issues. It's not designed for consumer use as a desktop/laptop OS.

Yes, everything still runs as it should, but the Windows Store is not included. If you need the Windows store, perhaps a debloated autounattend installer would be a much better route to go.

Chime if you'd like to know more. It's very easy and very effective.


There is this though.

Interesting! I was not able to get the store app to install. Didn't try too hard as it isn't important to me, and couldn't care less about the GameBar..

Getting store back just needs a PowerShell command, nothing more. Then Game Bar and its dependencies can be fetched from there.

I don't care about Game Bar but I do care about windowed VRR/flip model presentation, one of the main 24H2 gaming centric features, which is tied to it. This was the culmination of a 4-year-long rabbit hole to find what exactly caused windowed fullscreen VRR to stop working after clean installs.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah my experience has been the same as Tabascosauz and I was trialing it for quite some time. You can't get it officially in anything but absurd quantities though, so for my business it was a no go.

Note also, it is based on 24H2 and will not get an update from that. If GPU vendors start targeting a newer WDDM as has happened in the past (say one in 24H3) you may run into a scenario in the future where newer gpu drivers no longer install... caveat emptor.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If GPU vendors start targeting a newer WDDM as has happened in the past (say one in 24H3) you may run into a scenario in the future where newer gpu drivers no longer install... caveat emptor.

I haven't seen this yet. Windows 7/8/8.1 drivers still work fine in with 24H2. Ask me how I know..
EDIT: Not saying it's not possible, only that they haven't done this yet.

 

[mechtech]

I've been on it pretty much since the preview image. It's been pretty smooth sailing. All I did was reinstall Store and Game Bar to get windowed VRR working again. LTSC hasn't given me any angst for games.

It's a lot better than having to reinstall every year due to Windows progressively decaying over time, but I'm getting to a point where that is still slowly happening and might still have to reinstall now. Some funny business with windows not saving my display setup for sim hardware. Much better run than regular windows, that's for sure. It's nice when MS just leaves my PC alone and lets Windows be Windows.

View attachment 404588

He asked for LTSC

That's IoT LTSC..................which comes with additional license/purchase and install requirements vs plain LTSC??

Also I'm jealous...........where's my copy lol

don't see w11 up there yet, w10 still is though

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[tabascosauz]

He asked for LTSC

That's IoT LTSC..................which comes with additional license/purchase and install requirements vs plain LTSC??

Also I'm jealous...........where's my copy lol

don't see w11 up there yet, w10 still is though

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Do you use LTSC...? They just have some differences as to support period (5 vs 10 years), digital licence support (not for non-IoT), and some others.

 

[mechtech]

Do you use LTSC...? They just have some differences as to support period (5 vs 10 years), digital licence support (not for non-IoT), and some others.

No. On win10 pro until the end (this fall), then will do the in place upgrade (hopefully w11 fall update has been out for a bit by then) and if everything goes smooth and runs good, then will do a complete format to W11 Pro.

 

[chrcoluk]

If anyone uses Windows 11 LTSC, tell me about it.

I am thinking of using it l, to get away from the bloat of windows 11. But does it act like win 11, will game drivers still install and will all games still start and play without issues.

It should be no different to previous LTSC in this respect, gaming features still exist on LTSC and all games, game launchers etc. will still work.

 

[lexluthermiester]

No. On win10 pro until the end (this fall), then will do the in place upgrade (hopefully w11 fall update has been out for a bit by then) and if everything goes smooth and runs good, then will do a complete format to W11 Pro.

That debloat method I mentioned earlier?
The following is a big part of it;

Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11

Wonderfully useful.
I also use WinAeroTweaker to fine-tune various settings to my personal liking.

Winaero Tweaker 1.63 is available

I am releasing Winaero Tweaker 1.63. It includes several new features and some fixes. Here we go. The app should now properly detect the Windows version,

winaero.com

With those two utilities, you can install 11 of any version lean and clean and fully customized.

If you'd like some nitty-gritty tips, I'd be happy to help.

 

[mechtech]

That debloat method I mentioned earlier?
The following is a big part of it;

Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11

Wonderfully useful.
I also use WinAeroTweaker to fine-tune various settings to my personal liking.

Winaero Tweaker 1.63 is available

I am releasing Winaero Tweaker 1.63. It includes several new features and some fixes. Here we go. The app should now properly detect the Windows version,

winaero.com

With those two utilities, you can install 11 of any version lean and clean and fully customized.

If you'd like some nitty-gritty tips, I'd be happy to help.

W10 pro is default everything I think.

W11 pro ya that will be unattended setup.

 

[Vario]

Interested in this thread as I'll probably migrate to it soon.

 

[LabRat 891]

Interested in this thread as I'll probably migrate to it soon.

My main rig is still Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC but, any of the machines in the house that need modern virtualization or proper multiple GPU support, I use Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC on.

I still don't like 11, and will eventually find my own 'usability tweaks' (as I did w/ 8/8.1) but, it's not terrible. IMHO, about as bad as the move from 7 to 10 (for me).