Windows 10 Education or LTSB - Which one are you using?

[CHiLL]

I know that there threads about the pros and cons of each, but I can't find a rough estimate as to which is generally preferred in a school environment. So I thought I'd make a poll for other undecided techies. So which version are you using? Edited February 27, 2017 by CHiLL

[Katy]

Complicated here, everything runs Win 10 LTSB 1511 but my PC plus the music room run Win 10 Enterprise Anniversary (November version) as Sophos causes LTSB to be unable to boot* on that specific hardware**. We are going to roll out Win 10 Enterprise Anniversary over the summer as some of the problems with start menus appear to be fixed in it.

 

* Sophos support couldn't help me without the minidump files, and Windows was crashing before it made them so no help. Worked fine for months on the hardware then suddenly broke. Very disappointed with how slow Sophos support were to reply to anything (2-5 days)

 

** To make it more complicated we have the same hardware but from a different batch in another room which was not affected.

[gshaw]

Education on the machines I've done so far but seems split down the middle between that and LTSB from other people I've talked to.

[ItsOggy]

LTSB - been great, I did some customising of the Default Profile on the Build, couple of tweaks and I'm even running some 15 year old apps on it!

[seanjohns]

Been using LTSB 2015 on all computers deployed. Currently about 250-300 in use daily. Everything seems to be going fine, other than slower login times. We had to disable the Settings app to prevent kids from resetting the computers.

[pete]

Enterprise (clients) and LTSB (kiosk/single-purpose devices).

 

I'm tempted to start using Education just because I'd have to fiddle with it less before deploying.

[gshaw]

Interesting read re: LTSB Microsoft's support rules for Windows 10 LTSB void allure to enterprise customers | Computerworld

 

The problem, they explained, is that in the face of essentially annual silicon upgrades by Intel, enterprises would have to ditch the idea of sticking with a single LTSB build for, say, five years. Instead, they could be required to adopt virtually every LTSB version as they buy new PCs powered by new generations of silicon.

 

"Hardware incompatibility and limitations on support could actually make managing LTSB more challenging than a mainstream CBB deployment," the analysts said.

Edited March 2, 2017 by gshaw

[zag]

Yeh we've been using LTSB here sucessfully but when next generation of intel boards comes out we will have to redo the image I guess. Not a huge issue but could be annoying in the future.

 

Does education edition do anything over LTSB that I should know about?

Edited March 17, 2017 by zag

[localzuk]

So far I've found 2 things - Minecraft EDU, and you can't install the PDQ Deploy/Inventory consoles on LTSB.

[Arthur]

So far I've found 2 things - Minecraft EDU, and you can't install the PDQ Deploy/Inventory consoles on LTSB.

Visual Studio 2017 and Microsoft Surface devices too.

 

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/productinfo/vs2017-compatibility-vs#a-iddevelopwindows-avisual-studio-2017-support-for-windows-development

 

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/surface/ltsb-for-surface

 

[Arthur]

Yeh we've been using LTSB here sucessfully but when next generation of intel boards comes out we will have to redo the image I guess. Not a huge issue but could be annoying in the future.

Having to wait until 2019 to redo your image could be an issue?

 

https://twitter.com/jarwidmark/status/845774219078254592

 

[sparkeh]

Having to wait until 2019 to redo your image could be an issue?

 

https://twitter.com/jarwidmark/status/845774219078254592

 

I think a lot of us made this kind of point during the initial discussions. Being on LTSB is going to cause issues if you aren't using it for what it was intended for.

[free780]

I think sticking to the CBB release is best. However trying to doing upgrades mid year with reliable WOL out of hours needs to be done slow and steady. LTSB is really for healthcare and power stations not education.

[zag]

LTSB is working for for Intel 7th generation Kaby Lake stuff which we just started buying, so I don't think its a massive issue to wait 24 months for the future Intel version to be supported.

 

Its the speed that really gets me using LTSB, its twice as quick to login as Education edition.

 

I've never been one to upgrade regularly with these things so LTSB at the moment seems like the best path.

[Joanne]

All my machines are on LTSB, but I'm working on an Education image AS WE SPEAK!

[Duke5A]

I think a lot of us made this kind of point during the initial discussions. Being on LTSB is going to cause issues if you aren't using it for what it was intended for.

 

I suppose it depends on where you're at with your fleet. The newest hardware we have is fourth generation Intel. Even when we buy equipment we pick it up refurbished - a fourth gen i5 does everything we need at a fraction of the cost of brand new. Besides, the level in which you need to chop up a base load of Windows 10 to get the bloat out of it I would be leery of using in mass deployment. Might cause further issues down the line with updates.

[Geoff]

I have a mix. My road warriors are on LTSB. Office desktops are on Enterprise CB/CCB deployment rings stretching out to 6+months.

[Sheridan]

We're about 50% W10 Edu, the rest still on Windows 7.

 

Guess which half generates the most support calls....

[gshaw]

A random observation from today, I built a machine with LTSB (for streaming media so very little config change required which suits this build)

 

x64 install ~12GB

x86 install ~8GB

 

Did the x86 installation by accident due to building with the wrong ISO but was blown away by how small it was.

 

Still using Education for the production builds (1709 being tested atm) but digital signage machines etc. using LTSB.

[Blue_Cookeh]

Education 1703 at the moment. Testing a 1709 upgrade that I want to roll out ASAP so we can switch to OneDrive with files on demand.

[gshaw]

Education 1703 at the moment. Testing a 1709 upgrade that I want to roll out ASAP so we can switch to OneDrive with files on demand.

@Blue_Cookeh had any luck with the OneDrive client and updating it on the image?

[Techie2000]

If given the choice, for either LTSB or Edu, would you deploy x86 or x64? We're currently undecided as all of our software is compatible with both (bar Paint.net!) and none of our devices have any more than 8gb RAM. Previously we've only pushed out x86 Win 7 for the small image size.

[3s-gtech]

I wouldn't push out a 32 bit install if you paid me. More than half of our PCs have more than 4GB of RAM, some of our software is 64 bit only, I'd need to manage (and store) twice as many OS updates in WSUS, and it isn't 2005 any more.

[Arthur]

If given the choice, for either LTSB or Edu, would you deploy x86 or x64?

x64 Windows has more security features than x86. It's a no brainer.

 

My school has been 100% 64-bit since we originally deployed Windows 7 a really long time ago now.

 

If a lot of your PCs have 8GB RAM then you would be wasting half of it by using 32-bit Windows.

 

We're currently undecided as all of our software is compatible with both (bar Paint.net!)

Paint.net works on 64-bit Windows too.

Edited October 25, 2017 by Arthur

[gshaw]

I wouldn't push out a 32 bit install if you paid me. More than half of our PCs have more than 4GB of RAM, some of our software is 64 bit only, I'd need to manage (and store) twice as many OS updates in WSUS, and it isn't 2005 any more.

For production use I'd agree, I only use it because we have some Compute Sticks for digital signage that only have x86 UEFI firmware so can't take the x64 OS