As we focus more on Windows-specific guides this would be helpful information to know. Many privacy-related settings are only accessible to Enterprise, but Pro is the most advanced edition accessible at retail.
I tend to use IoT Enterprise LTSC but I think it would be a bad version to base any guides around as its near impossible for an individual to get a legitimate copy of the version without paying, what i would consider, an exorbitant amount.
Apologies for any inconvenience but what if I have multiple versions I use? (eg. Pro, IoT LTSC, Home)
I use Pro on my personal machine, which I set up using a autounattend file to get rid of all the bloatware, so far it works well for gaming.
Using Windows 11 Pro. I was unaware of Windows 11 Pro Workstation so I tried to find the differences. Workstation appears to offer the following:
Resilient File System (ReFS)
Detects when data becomes corrupt on one of the mirrored drives and uses a healthy copy of your data on other drives to correct and protect data.
Assigned Access
With Assigned Access, Windows 11 Pro devices run different applications depending on the user and keep individual identities separate and secured.
Aside from technically encouraging piracy, as LTSC versions of Windows are paywalled with licensing, is there any reason for an average user not to use Windows 10 LTSC or IoT LTSC editions acquired through non-Microsoft sites? Is the main concern that you canât easily verify whether the .iso comes directly from Microsoft and hasnât been modified?
I will highlight parts particularly relevant to privacy/security conscious users:
TL;DR if youâre uncertain, avoid LTSC and choose the general availability channel and its editions.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 and 11 through two servicing channels.
GAC (General Availability Channel)
- It is intended for both general and enterprise customers.
- Edition examples include options such as Home, Pro, and Enterprise.
- Maximum support on the same build is usually 2 years for consumers and 3 years for the enterprise. After that, you need to install feature updates.
- This is the main servicing channel and other software and games usually follow this channelâs life cycle to provide support.
LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel)
- It is designed for devices where functionality and features must remain constant over time, such as medical systems, industrial controllers, and air traffic control devices.
- Examples of editions include: Enterprise LTSC and IoT Enterprise LTSC.
- Maximum support on the same build is usually 5 years for LTSC and 10 years for the IoT LTSC.
- This is not the main servicing channel and other software and games usually donât follow this channelâs life cycle. For example, browsers and games might not provide support for 10 years on same build.
- It lacks most of the Store (UWP) apps.
Reasons to use LTSC:
- You donât like annual Windows feature upgrades.
- You donât like preinstalled Store (UWP) apps as well.
- You want longer update support for Windows 10.
Reasons to avoid using LTSC:
- As stated above, many games and software might not support LTSC once that same build has reached the end of life in GAC.
- Games might not work out of the box and you will manually need to install store and Xbox apps.
- New hardware might not be fully supported by a 2-3 year-old LTSC build (A new version of LTSC is released every 3 years).
- You might miss new features added in GAC that arenât available in LTSC.
Common misconceptions
- LTSC is fast.
Itâs not fast, although there might be a bit more RAM available because of no store apps running in the background, and you can achieve the same result in GAC channel editions by turning off background apps and startup apps.- Itâs more privacy-oriented.
No, telemetry options are the same as GAC Enterprise.
Also based on this page, it seems like IoT LTSC is strictly better in every way compared to normal LTSC, but there are reasons to not use either LTSC version in the first place.
Many websites list links which download ISOs directly from microsoft.com. I would strongly discourage ever downloading from non-Microsoft sources.
If @jonah is going to use the same source then here we go
for the verification:
Verify Authenticity Of Filesâ
You can use the file hashing method to verify if a file is genuine. This can be done using tools like 7-Zip (After installing 7-Zip, right-click on the ISO file and go to 7-Zip > CRC SHA).
There are many places where you can find these checksums for verification. Examples can be found below.
- files.rg-adguard (the most complete collection)
- MVS dump
- genuine-iso-verifier
- msdn.rg-adguard
- sha1.rg-adguard
Microsoftâs Official free links for checksums:
MVS
On MVS, you need to login and click on âAll Downloadsâ button and then search the product name.MVS Limitations:
- They used to publish only SHA-1, but later started publishing SHA-1 and SHA-256 both and from 2022 they now publish only SHA-256.
- However they removed all the SHA-1 data and as a result, old files checksums are simply not available on MVS site.
- Also, around the time when they were publishing SHA-1 and SHA-256 both, they messed up some SHA-256 data, for example
Incorrect SHA-256 exampleSHA256: BDB3D0C5C933B201ECE736A172FB604AA5D7D0705DD75681F9FCC4B1EE79FAC8File name: en-uk_windows_10_enterprise_ltsc_2019_x64_dvd_723dfbc1.iso
- So its useful only for the latest files.
Windows 11
SHA-256 list will appear if you download the ISO file.Windows 10
Microsoft doesnât allow you to download ISO file directly if browserâs useragent is Windows OS. So you need to change it to something else like Android or IOS and then download the ISO file to see the list.
Btw it seems my question which at least for me I feel is important is not answered
it could be just me but there could be other people in a similar vain.
Have been using Windows 10 Pro for many years, and recently switched to Windwos 10 Enterprise LTSC (Non-IoT).
Enterprise LTSC is waaaay better for me. Itâs debloated by default, and doesnât have whole bunch of unnecessary features that may harm privacy.
I also play games (mostly Steam and Blizzard Battlenet games) and havenât experienced any compatibility/performance issues with the LTSC version.
Though if my native language was English, I wouldâve used the IoT LTSC, which is almost identical to the Non-IoT LTSC except that it only offers English ISO and has subtle differences in the services executed, support period, etc.
btw, I donât use Microsoft Store, XBox, OneDrive. If one needs those features provided by MS, Pro edition might be more suitable.
did you just repeat the only 2 misconceptions Jonah highlighted 
I think you misunderstood my post since thatâs quite not the case. I was comparing LTSC to pro, not Enterprise.
As jonah mentioned below, LTSC and Pro has condiserably different telemetry. Also, since LTSC does not have various microsoft bundle apps installed(onedrive, ms store, groove music, etc), telemetry of those apps would differ in addition to that of Windows itself.
+LTSC allows removing Edge through the control panel. Though pretty much people on this forum would use custom scripts like privacy.sexy to uninstall Edge, I still think itâs an advantage.
From a threat model perspective do any of the version differences matter? Is there a reasonable case where someones threat model would include one of these versions but not the other due to the seemingly marginal differences in privacy features.
I think youâre still misreading.
As even the devs of Massgrave tl you which theyâre a windows enthusiast, the telemetry remains the same.
Yes in a sense Enterprise versions are âdebloated versions of windowsâ but thereâs no lower telemetry or anything here.
I think you could be misreading maybe. The difference between Pro and Enterprise when it comes to configurable telemetry settings is very substantial. Thereâs simply no difference between Enterprise and LTSC.
Configurable is a very different indeed but it is similar to pro to my understanding so thereâs that.
From a threat model perspective no, at least from home to enterprise thereâs less attack vectors and like pro you get to configure the telemetry/data collection
thatâs at least how I understand it.
Enterprise is not similar to Pro in terms of telemetry.
also @jonah for the final time, what about people that use Multiple editions like me.