July 29, 2019 · diy software

Windows 10 LTSC Post-Installation Guide

Introduction

This article is written for those that have just installed the latest version of Windows 10 LTSC. If you are not familiar with LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel), LTSC is a lightweight, distilled version of Windows 10: no Microsoft App Store, no Cortana, no Candy Crush, no Ads, and no Microsoft Edge (Edge was added to LTSC 2021). Updates for Windows 10 LTSC are never to add new features, but only to fix bugs and security issues. It's fast, reliable, and designed for businesses. Unfortunately, installation of Windows 10 LTSC is difficult and wrought with licensing issues, as Microsoft only provides this OS to businesses. I can't go into too much detail, but in order to install Windows 10 LTSC, you will need to download the corresponding ISO file:

# For LTSC 2019
64-bit ISO: SW_DVD5_WIN_ENT_LTSC_2019_64-bit_English_MLF_X21-96425.ISO
SHA-1: D5B2F95E3DD658517FE7C14DF4F36DE633CA4845

# For LTSC 2021
64-bit ISO: en-us_windows_10_enterprise_ltsc_2021_x64_dvd_d289cf96.iso
SHA-1: 2FB2897373C4F71B06F4490943B3D564B0F0FD6D

And if you're having difficulty finding a KMS server, all I can say is that Python is very good at emulating an internal KMS server 😉.

As one would expect from a Microsoft operating system, there are a bunch of tweaks needed to make Windows 10 LTSC respect your privacy and perform optimally after installation. However as a disclaimer, the following tweaks depend on the use case, so please decide for yourself.

Step 1: Disable the following services:

  • Program Compatibility Service
    • Analyzes your running programs to detect if any compatibility issues occur, but isn't required with newer software
  • Diagnostic Policy Service
    • Provides troubleshooting information
  • Connected User Experiences and Telemetry
    • More telemetry from Microsoft
  • SysMain / Superfetch
    • Will predict programs that will be used and loads them into memory for faster loading. However, with SSDs, this is a non-issue.
  • Prefetch
    • Will also load programs into memory, but is unnecessary with SSDs.
  • Windows Search
    • Indexes your files in the background for quick searching, but with an SSD, searching remains extremely quick
  • Connected Devices Platform
    • Provides enhanced connectivity with Microsoft services
  • Optimize Drives (Caution!)
    • This will perform the TRIM command on your SSDs. However, I don't mind the slight degradation of read/write speeds.

Step 2: Change the following Group Policies:

The following tweaks reduce the amount of telemetry Windows 10 sends to Microsoft.

Open "Group Policy Editor", navigate to the following policy, and set it to 0 - Security:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection And Preview Builds > Allow Telemetry

Next, navigate to the following policy and set it to Enabled:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > All Settings > Turn off KMS Client Online AVS Validation

Step 3: Run O&O ShutUp10:

O&O ShutUp10 is a tool that helps deactivate certain functions of Windows 10 that are unnecessary or overly invasive. On my installation, I disabled almost every feature, including services such as Windows Defender. However, please note that the configuration for ShutUp10 depends heavily on the use case of the computer.

These are the settings I applied (click to enlarge):

sidebysideshutup10v2

Step 4: Apply Personal Tweaks:

  • Enable Developer Mode in Settings
  • Navigate to Control Panel -> System & Security -> Power Options, and select "Ultimate Performance"
    • You can then re-enable automatic computer sleep in the Power & sleep settings
  • Navigate to Control Panel -> System & Security -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Performance settings. Disable all visual effects, except for: "Smooth edges of screen fonts", "Show window contents", "Show thumbnails", "Show translucent selection rectangle", and "Show shadows under mouse pointer"
  • Navigate to Settings -> Personalization -> Colors, and then disable transparency effects
  • Search for "UAC" in the task bar, and click "Change User Account Control settings". Lower the notification level so that UAC no longer dims the desktop.
  • Remove "Quick Access" from the navigation pane: Link
  • Remove "3D Objects" folder from This PC: Link
  • Disable mouse acceleration (optional): Link
  • Disable automatic reboots from Windows Update: Link

Update Nov 2022: added ISO and hash for LTSC 2021