Latest / The Windows Podcast with Fexingo: Microsoft, PC, and Enterprise Windows Conversations / Windows LTSC Is the Quiet Enterprise Upgrade Cycle
Transcript
- Lucas: Most enterprise Windows users spend their lives in the Semi-Annual Channel — feature updates every six months, new UI quirks, the occasional Copilot pop-up you didn't ask for. Luna: Right, that's the default for anyone on Microsoft 365 E3 or E5. But there's a parallel Windows universe that almost never gets talked about. Lucas: The Long-Term Servicing Channel — LTSC. It's the edition you find inside factory-floor PLCs, hospital MRI workstations, ATM networks, air traffic control terminals. Machines that cannot be rebooted for a feature update without risking real-world consequences. Luna: And if today's conversation saves an IT manager even one unplanned weekend migration, that's the kind of utility that keeps this show ad-free. Listeners who find this useful — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's how we stay independent. Lucas: Exactly. No ads, no sponsors shaping the take. Just the straight story. So let's get into the numbers. Luna: I want to anchor on a specific case. A regional bank — roughly 2,500 employees, all on Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019. They skipped 21H2, skipped 22H2, skipped Windows 11 entirely until last quarter. Lucas: That's a five-year gap. And it's not unusual. Microsoft officially supports each LTSC release for ten years — five years mainstream, five years extended security. The bank's 2019 edition had patches until 2029. Luna: So why did they finally move? Compliance pressure. Their auditor flagged that Windows 10 LTSC 2019 doesn't support certain TPM 2.0 attestation features that newer regulatory frameworks now expect. Lucas: That's the tension with LTSC. You get stability, but you also get a frozen feature set. No Microsoft Edge updates via Windows Update — you have to manage that separately. No Microsoft Store app updates. And with Windows 11 LTSC 2024, no Copilot integration at all. Luna: For some IT leaders, 'no Copilot' is a feature. One survey from Gartner last year found that 38 percent of enterprises had explicitly blocked Copilot rollout in their standard Windows images because of data-governance concerns. Lucas: LTSC sidesteps that entirely. But the trade-off is cost. LTSC licensing requires a volume-licensing agreement — usually Enterprise Agreement or Subscription Enrolment. And per seat, it's roughly 15 percent more expensive than the standard Enterprise edition that comes with Microsoft 365. Luna: Fifteen percent on a 2,500-seat deployment is not trivial. Let's do the math — if standard Enterprise is about $14 per user per month through an EA, LTSC would push that to roughly $16.10. That's an extra $63,000 a year for the bank. Lucas: But they might save more than that in avoided migration costs. The bank's IT director told me they used to budget for two full weekends of testing per feature update under the Semi-Annual Channel. With LTSC, they test once every three to four years. Luna: And testing isn't just IT labour. It's line of business app validation, regression testing on custom Access databases — the stuff that breaks in subtle ways when a new Windows build changes the rendering engine. Lucas: There's a specific example from that bank. They run a core banking application that relies on Internet Explorer 11's legacy document mode. On Semi-Annual Channel, IE11 was disabled in February 2023. On LTSC 2019, it was still available until last month. That gave them two extra years to modernise. Luna: Two years is huge. And it's exactly why regulated industries cluster around LTSC. Microsoft's own data — from a partner briefing in March — says 84 percent of LTSC deployments are in finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and government. Lucas: Which brings up the question: should every enterprise be on LTSC? I think the answer is no — not if you need the latest security features that depend on new OS components, like Credential Guard improvements or Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity. Luna: Right. Those often ship in feature updates, not just cumulative patches. So an LTSC machine might be more stable but slightly less resilient against some attack vectors. Lucas: That's the calculus. And Microsoft has made it clearer with Windows 11 LTSC 2024. They published a doc listing exactly which security features are absent: stuff like Smart App Control, which only runs on Semi-Annual Channel. If you need that, LTSC is the wrong choice. Luna: But if you're running a manufacturing execution system that can't tolerate a reboot during a 24-hour production run, LTSC is practically mandatory. I spoke to a plant IT manager in Ohio who said they schedule patch reboots exactly twice a year — during the Christmas shutdown. Lucas: That's the use case. And it's not a niche. Microsoft sells millions of LTSC licences. They just don't market it because it doesn't drive the feature-adoption metrics they show investors. Luna: Let's talk about the migration path the bank took. They went from Windows 10 LTSC 2019 straight to Windows 11 LTSC 2024. That's a jump across two major OS generations. How smooth was it? Lucas: Surprisingly smooth, according to the IT director. The biggest issue was printer drivers. Their old Ricoh MFPs used a driver model that doesn't exist in Windows 11. They had to replace three print servers. Luna: But the line of business apps — the core banking system, the loan origination software — those worked on the first build because they were already tested on Windows 11 23H2 in a pilot group. Lucas: Right. The pilot ran on Semi-Annual Channel for six months. Once those apps passed, they felt confident deploying LTSC 2024 to the rest of the fleet. That hybrid approach — pilot on SAC, deploy on LTSC — is becoming a best practice. Luna: And that's the practical takeaway. LTSC isn't a dinosaur edition. It's a deliberate tool for risk management. You just have to license it correctly and know what you're giving up. Lucas: One more number: the bank told me their total cost of ownership over five years was 12 percent lower with LTSC than their previous SAC cycle. Even with the higher per-seat licence fee, the reduction in testing and downtime more than offset it. Luna: That's a compelling data point. And it suggests that for organisations with stable, well-defined application portfolios, LTSC isn't just a fallback — it's the optimal path. Lucas: Worth noting that the next LTSC release — Windows 12, presumably — is rumoured to align with a new hardware lifecycle. If Microsoft sticks to the three-year cadence for LTSC, the 2027 edition could be the one to watch. Luna: For now, the takeaway is simple: know your update cadence options. SAC is fine for most knowledge workers. LTSC is better for machines that need to just work for a decade. The choice is strategic, not technical. Lucas: And if you're an IT manager currently budgeting for your next Windows refresh, the two numbers to remember are 84 percent — the share of LTSC seats in regulated industries — and 12 percent, the potential TCO savings. Those change the conversation with finance. Luna: It's the kind of conversation that makes this show worthwhile. And if it helped you, you know where to find us: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: On that note — next episode, we're looking at what happens when Microsoft's hardware requirements lock out perfectly capable PCs. The Windows 11 TPM 2.0 wall, three years later. Luna: Looking forward to it. For The Windows Podcast with Fexingo, I'm Luna. Lucas: And I'm Lucas. We'll see you next time.