Hacker News Reader

Comment by basilikum | Hacker News Reader

If you're forced to use Windows, just use Windows 10 LTSC 2021 IoT. Gets security updates until 2031 but none of the new "features".

View on HN

its not easy to use this legally though.

Running unlicensed versions of Windows has historically been pretty easy. Am I missing something with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021?

With Windows 7, once the evaluation period ran out, you just had to deal with an annoying notification about your copy not being genuine, but it never stopped me from doing whatever I needed to do after installing it on dozens of machines over the years, at this point.

1) They’ve started again to crack down on black-market activation methods

https://windowsforum.com/threads/kms38-shut-down-windows-act...

2) It’s not legal, obviously. I’d always have a tinge of worry that if I join a Teams call or something then my employer is on the hook for me doing something naughty.

(given how Microsoft has decided to “upgrade” my local account to a Microsoft account before when logging in to outlook)

Interesting. And worrying. I see a good number of those Kamrui (and competitor) Mini PCs from Amazon replacing a lot of the far more expensive and lower-powered industrial PCs for various uses in smaller machine shops. I was not surprised since they're inexpensive and have a decent kick to the hardware, but I've noted that the version of Windows they ship with is fairly free of a lot of the usual bloat, so I assumed they were just using one of the available scripts to remove it...which likely included the KMS38 work-around? And I can tell you first-hand that most of the smaller shops are far too busy penny-pinching to spend even a few hundred dollars a year on licensing one or two of those machines properly.

I never looked that deep into it since nobody came to me with any issues about it, but you have me wondering. I don't personally use Windows, either, despite my HN handle (it's just a reference I thought was funny), and I am finding myself more and more ignorant to what Microsoft is actually pushing. Thanks for the heads up. Will spend some time looking at this deeper.

>https://windowsforum.com/threads/kms38-shut-down-windows-act...

Seems AI generated?

The author of the post is ‘ChatGPT’

Ahh. Well, I feel stupid.

I'd say it's increasingly hard to tell anymore, in my defense, but my god, it's right on the page.

> 2) It’s not legal, obviously. I’d always have a tinge of worry that if I join a Teams call or something then my employer is on the hook for me doing something naughty.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I assume most people here are talking about their personal computers unless self employed.

The company IT department isn't going to be deploying oddball versions of Windows 10, unless you're shady small business.

I haven't really used Windows much for years, but doesn't it start shutting down once evaluation period is up? 'Windows will shutdown in 30 minutes unless licence key is added' etc., and the desktop background goes blue with some text about being unlicensed?

https://massgrave.dev

Also don't use the evaluation images.

I have not experienced that, which is why I questioned the difficulty. I've installed Windows 10 on a good amount of machines at this point, bypassing the NRO during the install process, and have not had any issues that prevented me from installing software/games or just using it like a normal PC, even after connecting it to the Internet.

However, my experience may be dated. It's been awhile since I've had to freshly install Windows. Perhaps things have changed.

Yes, I believe LTSC does have a harsher shutdown setting if you're out of the 90 day "evaluation" window. Standard Windows keeps working just disabling the wallpaper and showing a watermark which you might be able to ignore.

Consumer versions of Windows just put a watermark on your screen and disable changing your wallpaper and the like. You can use it indefinitely beyond that. And if you want the watermark gone, then Massgrave is your friend.

Does the LTSC have all the features needed for mainstream programs and games?

By Microsoft's own admission, it sounds like it:

> Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC is built on the Windows 10 / 11 code base so it’s natively compatible with the software and solutions you use today.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-...

I've not tried to use it specifically, which is why I'm curious.

Yes. The one place you may run into issues is with Microsoft-specific services, for example I'm not sure if Gamepass works.

But if you're just using Steam (or any other third party storefront) you won't have any problems at all.

Yes, and it's easy to strip out the garbage you don't want like Games Center and App Store.

Yep, last couple of Windows versions I used as desktop OSs likely 7 and 8) were unlicensed and, other than making the desktop background black (sometimes) and an occasional watermark reminder that it's not legit, nothing stopped working.

And using Windows for free still didn't stop me from migrating to Linux exclusively (desktop and laptops and servers), and it's a decision I'm increasingly happy with.

You are missing that it is not legal to do so.

The tracking they do is also not legal. Do they care?

If they aren't willing to sell it to those of us who want it I don't see a problem with not paying.

If Microsoft doesn't want to sell it, I don't see why I should care that it's illegal. I don't feel bad for downloading abandonware for the same reason. They don't want my money? Fine then. I'll just get it somewhere else then.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com