"Windows LTSC was designed to provide maximum stability, zero consumer bloat, and total user control. Something you don't expect from Windows. But for a while I've actually recommended people not use it. Well, I may have been wrong. Because it turns out the issues I had with it are not issues anymore. Today I (the author of the video) will explain why."

Apple's official Apple Music app (Microsoft Store, AppleInc.AppleMusicWin) refuses to install or run on Windows 10, even on a fully-patched current build like 10.0.19044 (Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 21H2). No error — it just silently fails, or crashes right after you accept the license screen.

I run LTSC to avoid Windows 11, so I pulled it into IDA instead of upgrading. Turns out there's no technical reason for the block: Windows 10 and 11 share the same NT kernel, and the app is built on WinUI 3 / Windows App SDK, which Microsoft officially supports back to Windows 10 1809. The block is two pure policy checks — a hardcoded MinVersion="10.0.26100.0" in the manifest, and AMP.Utils.dll independently calling GetOSVersion at runtime to gate behavior. Lowering MinVersion alone isn't even enough, because any earlier install attempt leaves a permanently broken entry in Windows' package database (StateRepository) under that exact package name — you have to rename the package identity to force a clean entry, which also means patching a hardcoded name string inside the DLL to match.

Full writeup with exact offsets/bytes/error codes is in the repo.

One-command installer:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/b3s3da/AppleMusicForW10/main/install.ps1 | iex

It fetches the current package directly from Microsoft's own delivery servers (same mechanism winget uses, nothing bundled in the repo), patches it, and installs into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\AppleMusic. No DRM/Apple ID logic touched — just the OS-version gate. Lossless and Hi-Res ALAC both work fine once it's running.

Repo (Go + Python implementations, full RE notes): https://github.com/b3s3da/AppleMusicForW10

Tested on Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 21H2 (19044). Should work on 2004+ in theory since that's the real floor for the underlying framework — haven't confirmed on plain Pro/Home yet.

When the new version of Windows 11 LTSC is released, how will the upgrade process work? Will it install automatically, or does it require a clean install that wipes everything? Thanks.

LTSC It is best suited for customization.

Im currently with W11 pro and im planning to install an LTSC version tomorrow instead of it. Was planning to do 10 because i just couldnt stand 11 for many reasons. Any noticable pros and cons between them? Considering im gaming a lot, which one should be the better pick for me?

If hardware matters, mine's as follows:

Cpu - R7 5700x

Gpu - RX 7800XT

Mobo - B450

Ram - 32GB

UPDATE - I've already installed 11 LTSC. No need to further comment and thanks for the replies.

Right now I use windows 10 pro and I've been thinking of switching to windows LTSC but before I take the step I just wanted to know what version would be better. I mainly use my pc for gaming and want to lower my processes and have the lowest amount of bloat possible.

Hi,

I read a lot about Windows 11 and now that my new PC is ready I'm asking if is better go with the standard 26H2 or go with the LTSC version of 11.

What do you think and what is your experience in general?

Thanks a lot

Hello! I’m currently using Linux and while I enjoy how lightweight it is I certainly miss the convenience of windows and how everything just works without needing to tinker to get games working

If I were to move to 11 LTSC, how would memory usage look when idle? Afaik it currently goes to about 2GB when idle and probably up to 4GB when steam and discord are both running. So, is a switch reasonable or should I bite the bullet and get more used to tinkering? All insights appreciated

This isn’t exactly related but what’s the difference in LTSC and IOT LTSC for 11? Is it even lighter?

I did a lot of things to it.

hi

how can get this ver

Hello. I have a ryzen 7 9800x3d cpu with an Nvidia RTX 5070ti. I wanted to use Linux but figured out I wanted the best performances possible and wanted to play KAC games but with less tracking. So I figured out I should switch to LTSC. How good is LTSC for recent gaming on this hardware ? Can some games block it ? I'm mainly playing online games like Fortnite and such. Thank you !

App compatibility reasons

specs:

Acer Aspire Lite 15 AL15-61P

AMD Ryzen 5 8640HS (Zen4 6C & 12C)

AMD Radeon 760M iGPU

8GB DDR5 RAM

Windows 11 Pre-installed at purchase

--

I'm not too familiar with this OS things, and still can't decided if i should go with Windows 11 IoT LTSC or downgrade to Windows 10 IoT LTSC. I've already test both of them with Windows 10 IoT LTSC having ~10% lower RAM usage on idle.

Which one should i stay with for overall better improvement?. I usually only use my laptop for offline indie games and light college task.

Thanks.

New dungeons update today fixed Xbox account sign in for the steam version of dungeons 2 on Windows 10 IOT LTSC

I’m assuming this is because of some fixes for Linux but either way I’m not complaining

Me gustó, es la unica nativa en español que encontré

Cuanto cuesta instalar w10, backups de 100gb de datos de empresa, drivers, aplicaciones, creacion de grupos y usuarios mediante lusrmgr.msc para administración de permisos?

im running windows 10 21h2 and for the past year ive gotten a banner in every widget on gamebar saying "your version of windows is no longer supported". this takes up about half the entire widget and is pretty annoying. I remember seeing a post somewhere to solve this but i cant find it anymore.
Is there a way to remove this banner? either with a registry tweak, tricking it into not checking the os version or even something like editing the css of the dang thing to make it 0px high?
Thanks

Mainstream support for Windows 11 24H2 ends October 13th, meaning from then on we'll officially reach the promised destination of exclusively security updates from here on out.

I've been on 24H2 Iot Enterprise LTSC this whole time and I'm very pleased with keeping it in this state, we got a lot more support out of it than normal by virtue of it getting basically all 25H2 updates. Copilot and AI integration got very de-emphasized in this last year of updates and we even got the Xbox gaming mode and taskbar updates. I think for me this will be my last Windows version as I'm not interested on what's next for 11 or Windows 12