Win 10 Ent. compared to Win 10 Ent. LTSB what would be the right decision?

[x23piracy]

Hey Guys,

i am currently thinking which VL Version of Windows 10 i should take for the next golden Image.
In the past i used reimaging without having a VL of Windows 10 (not complaint).

Now i want to step back to the bright side of the light and i need to decide wether use Enterprise or Enterprise LTSB.
The Facts i know:

• LTSB isn’t loaded with all the Crap, No Appx, no Edge and at least no Store.
• LTSB has no Online Update only SCM, WSUS or manual Updates can be installed.

My concerns are:

• What if i need an Appx from the Store one day? (I know howto gain Appx install files but can they be installed anyway?)
• How should i cover the field service employees that are never connected to our internal network (I don’t want to place a WSUS in the internet)

The more i think about LTSB the less is it usable for our situation.
How did you decide?

I also read about a possible problems with current updates for Office 365 while the OS (LTSB) isn’t the latest.

Regards X23

[Wayne Workman]

@x23piracy said in Win 10 Ent. compared to Win 10 Ent. LTSB what would be the right decision?:

LTSB

ltsb is a piece of crap. Doesn’t even have MS Paint installed. I deployed it at my last job - wish I didn’t. Stick with Enterprise.

[x23piracy]

@wayne-workman current ltsb (2016) has paint
Currently i am feeling to stick with Enterprise without LTSB. But i need to say i really like that empty startmenu

[Wayne Workman]

@x23piracy I remembered wrong - not paint, it’s the default windows photo viewer that it doesn’t have.

[x23piracy]

@wayne-workman i love irfanview

[JJ Fullmer]

@wayne-workman
Fun fact, you can add the old default windows photo viewer to LTSB or the normal windows 10.
You just need to enable it in the registry. This is the contents of the reg file to do that

 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open]
"MuiVerb"="@photoviewer.dll,-3043"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\open\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\print]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\print\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,72,00,75,00,\
6e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,22,00,25,\
00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\
25,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,20,00,50,00,68,00,6f,\
00,74,00,6f,00,20,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,50,00,68,00,\
6f,00,74,00,6f,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
00,22,00,2c,00,20,00,49,00,6d,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,56,00,69,00,65,00,77,00,\
5f,00,46,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,73,00,63,00,72,00,65,00,65,00,6e,00,20,00,25,\
00,31,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoviewer.dll\shell\print\DropTarget]
"Clsid"="{60fd46de-f830-4894-a628-6fa81bc0190d}"

Save all that as a .reg file to add the windows 7/8 style photo viewer to windows 10

[Psycholiquid]

I use LTSB for Desktops and Laptops.

Enterprise (without LTSB) for tablets. Its pretty simple if you need Store and table support go without LTSB. Other than that you wont need the other stuff.

@Wayne-Workman The photo-viewer doesn’t work in 1703. It just ignores it.

[Wayne Workman]

I remember we rolled out LTSB for the specific reason that it was trimmed down and had less bloat in it - but one day we setup a laptop for a presentation and the presenter 15 minutes before the presentation started said “I can’t see my pictures” referring to the photo files on his thumb drive. I was just in such disbelief that the LTSB version didn’t have a default photo viewer setup. This is something that every OS should come standard with. It was 2016 - not 1990. Photo viewers are not rocket science, they are very basic programs.

[Psycholiquid]

@wayne-workman Well they want you to use the App Photos now, but you cant get that in LTSB because of the no Appx packages. Really a dumb not thought out plan.

[JJ Fullmer]

So, despite the ridiculous amount of changes (some really dumb ones, google demystifying dual scan, and then read the windows 10 wsus group policy documentation to find some conflicting ones) I would still recommend the Current Branch for Business. We’ll actually they recently changed the naming to be Semi-annual Channel for CBB and Semi-Annual-Channel (Targeted) for Current Branch.

While I certainly was all about the LTSB at first, there are some issues with it I have discovered.

One of the bigger ones is the lack of support for “new silicone” I don’t have time to go find the articles at the moment, but I’ve read a few microsoft and third party posts on how LTSB won’t support the latest chipsets as they come out. So in other words, if you have a image setup with LTSB 2015, but you have a new computer with a cpu/chipset that came out in 2018 with some fancy new features, you won’t be able to install LTSB on that new computer, or at least you won’t be supposed to be able to.

Also, while I was rather hesitant to allow access to the windows store, as I started adding surface type touch screens to our environment I’ve come to find it more and more useful. Also, there are plenty of group policies to disable access to the windows store.

Also, reading about the new features and such as they come out, kept making me want the new features. A more flexible and customizable windows update experience, new powershell cmdlets, and all sorts of things to play with.

Personally the whole no support for new silicone thing is what converted me.
Plus, we want to have a regular imaging schedule and the now semi-annual release schedule gives us a schedule to deploy fresh images. Which we intend to do instead of deploying the new releases through wsus. Updating from one release to another tends to lose some customizations like lockscreen images and custom account pictures. Plus they tend to change some of the features surrounding those customizations, so updating the ol unattend file and setupcomplete type scripts on that regular basis to be able to take advantage of new features is prolly a good idea. Also, have you checked out windows imaging configuration designer to make provisioning packages? It’s pretty sweet.

So in short, due to recent changes to the windows as a service paradigm and choices in support rules for LTSB, unless you are using the same hardware for something for 10 years that needs to not have any risks of new features, and perhaps has some legacy software needs. Then LTSB is the way to go. If you are just looking to shirk away from pieces of windows 10 like the store and such, you should not go with LTSB and either embrace the changes, or create more restrictive group policies. Especially since you become so very stuck with any version of LTSB since you can only update to another iteration with a fresh install/image.

If you for some reason don’t have a AD to deploy group policies you can utilize provisioning packages and for policies not yet supported there you can learn to utilize the https://github.com/dlwyatt/PolicyFileEditor powershell module to deploy local group policies.

That’s my 2 (maybe it’s more like 200) cents on the matter.

[x23piracy]

Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB

[Wayne Workman]

@x23piracy Yes I realize Paint is in LTSB - I don’t know why I said paint earlier. I remembered wrong. LTSB originally did not have a default photo viewer at all.

[Psycholiquid]

@jj-fullmer you should look at UE-V if you want to keep lock screens between users and machines. I use it here and we can allows Windows 10 and Virtual Windows 10 users to keep the complete desktop experience. Wallpaper, Signatures, Outlook Cache. Even settings from applications that they setup such as mRemoteNG (remote desktop emulation program.) It is a pain to learn but what isn’t these days.

[x23piracy]

It looks like LTSB is receiving online updates, i read about that this is only possible via SCM, WSUS or manual.
This was maybe only with LTSB 2015 and not with 2016 or was this just a rumor (lie).

From what i can say is that my LTSB 2016 is getting online updates.

Regards X23

[Psycholiquid]

@x23piracy It has always gotten updates via online. All version I have used gets online updates so long as it is activated.

[x23piracy]

@psycholiquid if so i don’t see any reason why not use ltsb in my case.

[Psycholiquid]

@x23piracy Like we have all said it is personal preference, and what you will to put up with, the Photo viewer thing that @Wayne-Workman brought up was a big issue here until I put my foot down and told them to use Word.

[x23piracy]

@psycholiquid i need to say regular Windows 10 1703 has stopped at some point respecting Irfanview as Photoviewer, it doesn’t present it at the defaults app if you click the box that offers possible applications.

Is MS playing dirty here? Or is that just a bug?
I will now try to install Irfanview in my test VM and will report if it offers it as photoviewer.

Regards X23

[x23piracy]

@psycholiquid irfanview will be offered and it has been set as default after install:

[x23piracy]

I really like that there are no default apps by default in LTSB