Aside from that, the company also announced Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 this week. The company has also published the minimum system requirements as well as supported processor families. They have been categorized as Preferred and Optional. Interestingly, SSD has been added as a minimum system requirement, which has been a rumour about the client OS since mid-2022.
↫ Sayan Sen at NeoWin
The LTSC release, which is not really supposed to be used by average consumers, is still remarkably popular. It contains a fixed feature set and gets far fewer updates than regular Windows releases, it omits otherwise stock applications like Edge, and gives its users far more control over which updates are and are not installed. LTSC also enjoys 10 years of support from Microsoft.
Interestingly enough, the minimum specifications for the IoT version of LTSC do not require a TPM 2.0, unlike the regular version of Windows, which infamously does require one. I would assume that the “preferred” minimum requirements, which does require TPM 2.0, line up very well with the minimum requirements for the regular LTSC version of Windows 11. Both will become available later this year, alongside the regular release of Windows 11 24H2.
I really wish that us, simple mortals, could buy this version.
Are there any drawbacks to using this version in a desktop/laptop? I’ve heard good things about Win10 LTSC, but the IoT label for this release is a little bit concerning.
Or can you add all needed components on an ad-hoc basis?
In my experience with Windows 10 LTSC, the only difference between the IoT version and the standard LTSC version is the support timeline. The IoT version gets a few more years of support, I assume because its intended use case is embedded devices that themselves have a very long support lifetime. Functionally there is no difference between standard LTSC and IoT. I’d be willing to bet the same will hold true for the Windows 11 versions.
Thanks. I may have to consider this version.
Sounds like a Windows 11 LTSC IoT will be a perfect guest for a virtual machine on a Linux host. 10 years support and no faffing around with a virtual TPM.
j0scher,
How do Windows TPM requirements affect virtual instances? I don’t have experience with this myself with the latest versions of windows.
I don`t think that it does at any way.. I`m using Windows 11 VM at work without any problems since at least a year. It work 24h with reboot when updates require it.
Marshal Jim Raynor,
What VM software are you using? By any chance did you try a linux QEMU host? Both these links cover qemu on linux and both instructions say the “swtpm” package is needed.
https://recolic.cc/blog/post/qemukvm-create-windows-1011-vm-with-tpm-and-secure-boot
https://www.smoothnet.org/qemu-tpm/
The recolic source links to “WHQL-signed virtio iso”, which gives the impression that it might have special TPM guess drivers…? I’m curious if microsoft’s TPM drivers will work with any VM host that supports TPM or if they require VM software like vmware to use a certified implementation. I searched briefly but could not find an answer.
Hyper-v on Windows Serwer 2016. Didn’t think about its before – maybe Linux hosts may have problems with TPM
Call me a “bad” person but I believe if as a home user you own a Windows 10/11 Pro license you’re automatically eligible for using Windows LTSC because without Active Directory (and you’re not getting it at home ever) 1) They don’t offer almost any features on top of the Pro versions 2) By default they offer even fewer features 3) The Microsoft support hotline is generally useless, as are their forums, so it’s not like you’ll ever get any support with these OSes ever 4) The IoT SKU is the only release which allows to continue to securely use old “unsupported” HW.
P.S. At no point I’m advocating for piracy.
P.P.S. And recently I’ve learned that software piracy is rampant in first-world countries. Millions of individuals use Windows without paying for it a single cent. I was flabbergasted, but whatever.