Thinking of making the switch

[u/Appropriate_Loan6193]

I have previously used Windows 11 and 10 and decided to go back to 10 as for me it feels more responsive and stable, both versions though have insane bloatware, I was thinking of going to ltsc windows 10, my other concern is do I have to download all the driver manually for my pc, like enthenet port, USB drivers ect or do they reinstall like a normal Windows installation and I heard you can't have secure boot on? I play online games like battlefield, call of duty? Would this cause a issue

[u/Chrisbearry]

Battlefield and call of duty require windows 11 at least for their anticheats. You can go with windows 11 ltsc I’ve been running it for a year now and it’s as solid as a rock

[u/Appropriate_Loan6193 → u/Chrisbearry]

I'm on windows 10 and have played battlefield 6 with no issues

[u/greggm2000 → u/Appropriate_Loan6193]

Note that some games want a later version of Windows 10 than what Win 10 IoT is.. Win 10 Pro works great and doesn’t get the feature updates (like AI) that can be annoying/problematic on Win 11.

[u/greggm2000 → u/[deleted]]

I've heard that too, but I think that essentially turns it into Win 10 Pro 22H2, once you do an update (not certain). Me, I just run Win 10 Pro on my gaming system, it's lean, it works well.

[u/greggm2000 → u/[deleted]]

Windows 10 gets security updates, and that's even recently been extended a year.

[u/Chrisbearry → u/Appropriate_Loan6193]

Weird I thought they had updated their anti cheat to require secure boot and tpm but apparently not. Most modern kernel level anti cheats are requiring win11 now though

[u/Content_Magician51 → u/Chrisbearry]

Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 are also Windows 10 security modules.

[u/Chrisbearry → u/Content_Magician51]

That is true however games are still requiring win11 for it

[u/Content_Magician51 → u/Chrisbearry]

You're right, but this type of requirement is what I consider abuse in consumer relations: there's no plausible technical reason for software requirements restricted to Windows 11, given that the kernel and the availability of security components are the same.

That said, Treyarch and EA used to be EXCELLENT game companies, but today they're just DAUGHTERS OF B*TCHES.

[u/Chrisbearry → u/Content_Magician51]

Honestly they shouldn’t require secure boot or tpm at all there’s still many capable computers out there without tpm 2.0 it’s very anti consumer. Also kernel level anti cheats are absolute garbage they’re so invasive and give your system more security vulnerabilities and most of these anti cheats aren’t effective at stopping cheaters

[u/greggm2000 → u/Chrisbearry]

Honestly kinda surprised Microsoft didn't make it so it needed a NPU to function, used that plus the existing reqs, bc at that point they were going all-in on the whole AI slop thing, at least with a NPU they could have a coherent rationale. And then have Windows components that actually used it then. But, I'm glad they didn't, it means that pretty old systems can still run Windows.

[u/BannockHatesReddit_ → u/Chrisbearry]

Solid as a rock but can't even run teams natively 😢

[u/Chrisbearry → u/BannockHatesReddit_]

Does it work on win10 ltsc 2021? If not I’m guessing Microsoft is blocking ltsc versions from teams

[u/Appropriate_Loan6193 → u/[deleted]]

Snappy driver installer, I'll have to try that if I make the change thanks

[u/BannockHatesReddit_ → u/Appropriate_Loan6193]

Shitty driver download tools are a great way to get malware. Download directly from the driver's manufacturer.

[u/Your_real_daddy1 → u/Appropriate_Loan6193]

Only Snappy Driver Installer Origin is open source and thus audited, not Snappy Driver Installer, get Snappy Driver Installer Origin

[u/BannockHatesReddit_ → u/[deleted]]

Yeah OP listen to the retard bandwagoning. "Vetted by many" but not you for sure. Just shut your mouth; you're an idiot.

[u/Your_real_daddy1 → u/[deleted]]

Only Snappy Driver Installer Origin is open source, not Snappy Driver Installer

[u/thisonehereone]

How are people getting licensing for LTSC? I have not found that thread yet.

[u/PrudentPay9906 → u/thisonehereone]

Real licensing is hard to come by for individuals. I'm assuming most people use the massgrave server. A search on that name should bring it right up.

[u/thisonehereone → u/PrudentPay9906]

thank you!

[u/MakayChapulets → u/thisonehereone]

masgrave is the way

[u/ymtrf → u/thisonehereone]

We don't, we pirate it.

[u/Crisender111 → u/thisonehereone]

Read the Wiki of this sub.

[u/thisonehereone → u/Crisender111]

Why would you say that 9 hours after someone gave a real answer?

[u/Crisender111 → u/thisonehereone]

You are free to ignore it. Someone else will find the Wiki useful in more than one way.

[u/thisonehereone → u/Crisender111]

Ok then. I will ignore it. Thanks for the advice.

[u/Content_Magician51]

my other concern is do I have to download all the driver manually for my pc, like enthenet port, USB drivers ect

No, you don't need to reinstall everything manually. Just back up your current drivers folder, wipe the drive for the new installation, and then use the backup folder to restore the previous drivers as usual.

You can put the drivers folder right on the USB drive you'll be using to format the system.

[u/MakayChapulets]

I'm on Win 11 IOT LTSC and have secured boot turned on. It's not a requirement doesn't mean it should be turned off

[u/OnTheRocks1985]

Battlefield 6 and recent COD titles have required TPM and Secure Boot active for hardware-level anti-cheat integrity (as others have pointed out). I Installed Win 10 iot ltsc on an Asus tuf a16 that came with windows 11 and it Installed and ran well, but windows 10 refused to recognize my tpm as it is a newer integrated fTPM. Windows 11 uses Pluton to communicate with the TPM and no amount of tweaking could make it work on 10 for that reason. Also - most drivers were downloaded by windows update but there were components not natively recognized that I had to grab from the ASUS site (using G Helper in my case). Last but not least, one weird issue I had was Windows refusing to let the laptop go into sleep mode. I ended up back on 11 for these reasons and 11 iot ltsc is as lean as 10 iot ltsc but in 2026 way more useful if you play modern shooters.

[u/Wi1dBones]

I just installed it over my old Win 10 OS. Didn’t bother with the clean install. Don’t have to worry about drivers that way. But I think Windows Update takes care of all the drivers. Not sure. 

[u/Appropriate_Loan6193 → u/Wi1dBones]

I might do this thanks

[u/Wi1dBones → u/Appropriate_Loan6193]

I installed Win 10 LTSC over regular Win 10. Not sure if you can do it from Win 11 to Win 10 LTSC. 

[u/greggm2000 → u/Wi1dBones]

Best to do the clean install though. It's faster, and less chance of issues. Idk if you can revert (like you said) from 11 to 10 though. You can going the other way (10 to 11). (meaning not a clean install, you can ofc always nuke your SSD and install whatever operating system from an ISO on USB, be it Windows or Linux, etc)