W10 Edu vs W10 Ent LTSC

[foofighterjim]

Pick a stable xx09 release and you're good for 30 months.

 

I think from an education perspective this is something else Microsoft have messed up. For instance 1809 is supported until May 11th 2021, If we are talking re-imaging rather than in place updates you would still need to update in Summer 2020, exactly the same if you are running 1803 which is supported until November 10th 2020. So from a logistics perspective picking an 03 or an 09 release really doesn't make much difference, unless I'm missing something .

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

[Koldov]

I don't know whether they've been ported into the latest LTSC but there were a lot of Windows Defender security features that came in with 1709 (EMET stuff from Win7 days) that you miss out on with the LTSB build so for that alone I stick with the Education build.

 

Interested to find out if it hasn't been done, then why?

 

As others have said, if LTSB/C is meant for long term stability in production machines/workstations -surely these need to be equally secure if not more so - as someone mentioned NHS (don't want them being hacked again do we)...

[Arthur]

I don't know whether they've been ported into the latest LTSC but there were a lot of Windows Defender security features that came in with 1709 (EMET stuff from Win7 days) that you miss out on with the LTSB build so for that alone I stick with the Education build.

Interested to find out if it hasn't been done, then why?

Each LTSC version would pick up the security features from the Windows 10 build it is based on. i.e. LTSC 2019 will have the same security features as 1809.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/whats-new-windows-10-2019

 

Features in Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC are equivalent to Windows 10, version 1809.

 

 

The main issue with LTSC is that you have to wait 3 years for another version to come along.

Edited March 15, 2019 by Arthur

[Koldov]

"Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 builds on Windows 10 Pro, version 1809 adding premium features designed to address the needs of large and mid-size organizations (including large academic institutions)"

 

My BOLD.

 

"The LTSC release is intended for special use devices. Support for LTSC by apps and tools that are designed for the semi-annual channel release of Windows 10 might be limited."

 

Their BOLD

 

Special use devices in large academic institutions...?

 

I would say most of the teachers that use our laptops are special...

 

 

The main issue with LTSC is that you have to wait 3 years for another version to come along.

 

But obviously if you're happy with it, that's not an issue.

Edited March 15, 2019 by Koldov

[gshaw]

I think from an education perspective this is something else Microsoft have messed up. For instance 1809 is supported until May 11th 2021, If we are talking re-imaging rather than in place updates you would still need to update in Summer 2020, exactly the same if you are running 1803 which is supported until November 10th 2020. So from a logistics perspective picking an 03 or an 09 release really doesn't make much difference, unless I'm missing something .

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

Stability more than anything, you'd have more time to test the xx09 release before deploying, vs the xx03 release that would've barely been out a month or two.

 

This happened to us with 1709 vs 1803. I'd done months of user acceptance testing with 1709 and was tempted at one point whether to take a punt on 1803.

 

Common sense soon prevailed and I stuck with 1709, which I was very glad about when 1803 had issues with mapped drives initially whilst 1709 behaved exactly as it had in testing; nice and solid [emoji41]

[CD93]

LTSC here (previously LTSB at secondary site) and absolutely no regrets whatsoever. What the "Education" version should be...

[Rob_D]

LTSC here (previously LTSB at secondary site) and absolutely no regrets whatsoever. What the "Education" version should be...

 

What you mean with all fun stuff stripped out? Actually, yeah that sounds about right.

[free780]

I did in place upgrades mid year using SAC. The main issue was 3rd party software (Unity, Impero etc) which needed to be uninstalled and licence returned. Then put back when the OS was upgraded. Other that it seem to be fine.

[Ertech]

Does the LTSC come with Story Remix video editor?

[robjduk]

no... just windows the way god intended it to be.

[Rob_D]

Does the LTSC come with Story Remix video editor?

AFAIK the LTSC skew doesn't support "modern apps" and definitely doesn't come with any by default.

[DrCheese]

AFAIK the LTSC skew doesn't support "modern apps" and definitely doesn't come with any by default.

 

Yes that's correct, I don't think you can even install them after the event as it's missing the apps needed to make that work

[supportman]

Who would want to run 'modern' apps though? They are just a relic from the Windows 8 days when Microsoft thought ARM and touchscreens were the way forwards.

 

Microsoft is clearly moving back towards .net and merging that with the modern SDKs from a development point of view so I doubt it will be an issue in the future.

 

Just look at the mess Microsoft got in with the modern skype app to see the issues, you still cant even minimise to tray!

[Rob_D]

Who would want to run 'modern' apps though? They are just a relic from the Windows 8 days when Microsoft thought ARM and touchscreens were the way forwards.

 

As I understand it, all windows store apps (like the win10 calculator or photo viewer) are "modern" apps.

[mavhc]

Every new app MS has added to Windows has been UWP, therefore LTSC = dead end

[DrCheese]

Not really - The LTSC installs the old calc.exe and you can renable the old photo viewer with a simple reg key. It's not a dead end, it's a choice.

[Rob_D]

Not really - The LTSC installs the old calc.exe and you can renable the old photo viewer with a simple reg key. It's not a dead end, it's a choice.

 

And by the time you've done all that it's about as much work as stripping the crud out of Edu.

 

What would be ideal is LTSC+ with things like the old calc and photo viewer on as standard.

[kingoranks]

LTSC just works, no issue very stable

[mavhc]

Not really - The LTSC installs the old calc.exe and you can re-enable the old photo viewer with a simple reg key. It's not a dead end, it's a choice.

 

Neither of those things will get any updates though.

 

No video creation tool, photo effects etc.

[robjduk]

Neither of those things will get any updates though.

 

No video creation tool, photo effects etc.

 

so?

 

Bottom line... If you want a trouble free environment, install LTSB. If you want to make your life a pain then go full version and let me know how things go the day you walk into everyone screaming at you because its decided to install a huge feature update.

[JRowley]

so?

 

Bottom line... If you want a trouble free environment, install LTSB. If you want to make your life a pain then go full version and let me know how things go the day you walk into everyone screaming at you because its decided to install a huge feature update.

 

This has never happened to me and we've been using Windows 10 Education since release, it's literally not a thing that happens.

 

To suggest that you have to use LTSB to get a trouble free environment is nonsense, our Windows installation is the last thing I have to worry about - it's completely stable.

Edited March 22, 2019 by JRowley

[supportman]

This has never happened to me and we've been using Windows 10 Education since release, it's literally not a thing that happens.

 

To suggest that you have to use LTSB to get a trouble free environment is nonsense, our Windows installation is the last thing I have to worry about - it's completely stable.

 

Its absolutely true though... we were testing the full education version and installed the (I think) 1809 update and it broke all the start menus for some reason. That's why we changed to LTSC fully.

 

Its much quicker to boot, has no upgrade issues, you don't need to run silly powershell scripts to remove the bloat and it "just works".

[JRowley]

Its absolutely true though... we were testing the full education version and installed the (I think) 1809 update and it broke all the start menus for some reason. That's why we changed to LTSC fully.

 

Its much quicker to boot, has no upgrade issues, you don't need to run silly powershell scripts to remove the bloat and it "just works".

 

What can I say, I've never had an issue with the Start Menu, the powershell script is a run once task and is no inconvenience at all, apart from that minor thing Windows 10 Education "just works" for me too.

 

To each their own obviously.

Edited March 22, 2019 by JRowley

[DrCheese]

I don't think the average end user really cares if photo viewer or calc isn't the latest or greatest.

 

I'm still going full speed ahead on switching to the standard builds tho - I've got it virtually perfect now with all the apps I don't want removed & it now respects those choices during upgrade (I've been testing 1803 to 1809 upgrades to verify) Only issue I have left is that when a feature update is installed, a standard reboot won't apply it (which is annoying) but I'll iron that out.

 

Likewise with office, I can upgrade/switch channels at a the drop of a group policy. Easy life.

[mavhc]

It's not one specific feature, it's the idea. Our job is to provide the technology and iron out the problems.

 

1. We should provide the latest versions of things for students because otherwise they'll be even further behind when they leave school. Don't force people to use IE etc.

2. At home everyone will have the latest features, because that's how Windows works, so they'll be confused when stuff they know how to use is missing

 

Feature updates can be scheduled for overnight.