this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
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If your pirating which for end users is the only way to get LTSC, just run Windows Server.
It's cleaner than LTSC.
No, dont run server. Many programs will not allow to be installed on it without getting enterprise versions of the software. Also gaming on it can have many limitations.
I run server and have never seen that. Could you give an example?
There are no limitations. The scheduler doesn't prioritize foreground tasks over background tasks. In my experience that makes it smoother. If you want it to multitask like desktop, it's a registry setting.
a example i know right of my head is ESET. it will force you to get their enterprise version. at least they used to do so.
Can you elaborate on how it's cleaner?
xbox gamebar isn't preinstalled. Onedrive backup and bing search bar isn't preinstalled.
Didn't know they were present on the latest IoT LTSC
Not disagreeing but this isnt a form of pirating. They didnt break shit, they didnt hack shit and they didnt exploit shit. Microsoft built their entire DRM software in a way that was able to be recerse engineered.
Again, not contradicting anything you recommended. I just wanted to point this out for any lurkers because I cant encourage this option enough for anyone forced into putting up with Windows. You are actually uaing the same activation codes that microsoft themselves generate and distribute to their customers.
I can confirm it works for Windows 10, 11, for any iteration of 23h or 24h, all Office applications, both individually and packaged, visual studio, and I wanna say Adobe but that one im not 100% on.
Its been over a year and as I said above im going off memory but I think I went with IoT Enterprise because of how nominal the differences were from Windows Server but also wanted to check out the IoT Enterprise because my cousin was starting his own fabrication/manufacturing company at that time and it was a good opportunity to see what his options were for future scalability that came with IoT Enterprise.
Circumventing DRM by any means, whether that's by modifying it so it doesn't work or just clicking buttons that the DRM provider doesn't want you to click, is legally considered piracy in most of the world. If you didn't get the activation code from Microsoft (or someone Microsoft authorised to give it to you), it's pirated.
Id disagree. Its not my responsibility to close all their doors that are accessible to the public. Microsoft provided all the tools to use their software without their involvement. As a US citizen, I'm liable for my own negligence and/or ignorance. Corporations are pegally protected under corporate personhood so the same liabilities affect them too.
Legally, it isn't. The DMCA (and compatible laws in non-US countries, which those countries have to have or they're not allowed a trade deal, and not having a trade deal with the US is devastating for an economy) doesn't require copyright holders to do anything to defend their copyright. It does make it illegal to do (nearly) anything with copyrighted media that you don't have explicit permission to do from the copyright holder (there are some exceptions, but people generally think they go further than they really do). It also makes it illegal to do (nearly) anything to circumvent DRM, even if you have a legal right to use the thing that the DRM is protecting, no matter how crappy the DRM is and how easily it can be bypassed.
You're allowed to think that the law is stupid (it's the DMCA - everyone who looks at it and isn't a multibillion dollar publishing company thinks it's stupid), but that doesn't mean that it's not the law, and for legal terms like piracy, you can't just substitute your own definition based on what should be legal if it conflicts with the definition that says what really is legal.
The reason why non-crap DRM exists when there's no legal reason to make it not crap is the same reason why DRM exists at all when there's no legal reason to have DRM at all when piracy of DRM-free stuff is already a crime. It's that publishers think that the more of a hassle it is to pirate things, the more likely people are to buy things legally. Technically, a shareholder could sue a company for using crap DRM that failed to protect their IP, but the company has a decent defence by saying that they felt that intrusive DRM would hurt their reputation with legitimate customers, so not using strong DRM is not grounds to say a company's been negligent and liable for any losses they make due to piracy.
I thought activation scripts were somewhat of a grey area legally?
No, they're illegal several times over as you've got to pirate the thing in the first place to end up in a situation where you need one, and then they're inherently a DRM circumvention device, which are illegal to possess, and then using them circumvents DRM, which is illegal to do. The upside is that you're unlikely to be caught.
We're talking about Windows ltsc aren't we? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc-eval the ISO is freely available on Microsofts website.
The script is legal. Not paying for software that requires you to pay is illegal.
It's like DeCSS code that strips drm from DVDs was legally grey but downloading movies you didn't pay for is illegal.
It's not your responsibility to close the doors, but it is your responsibility not to walk in an open door and take something that's not yours
Yep, and that negligence/ignorance you're liable for in this case is piracy.
You're welcome to disagree with a bad law (and make no mistake, I absolutely think it's a bad law), but you're still liable for breaking laws you don't agree with. By all means break it, but don't pretend you're not breaking it, and make sure you take reasonable precautions to keep yourself safe while doing so.
You're picking up what im putting down lol. Didn't mean to say I was disagreeing with what youre saying just in this case especially:
Where I've paid for each new pc build to just have a blank slate and not carry over my digital footprint for microsoft from one build to the next. Also, tho, im not taking what isnt already mine, im just using a work around for dealing with microsoft's atrocious customer service.
Again, not saying this will hold up in a court of law, jist saying I dont lose any sleep over it.
Bonus rationalization: fuckin outlooks locked in and un-adjustable junk mail filters have auto filtered Microsoft own emails for upcoming annual Office invoices to my junk folder that I used to rarely check before getting slammed with over a $100 charge for Office eliminating my ability to use the email reminders as notification to cancel my subscription cuz even if you paid for a year of Office but wanna cancel a month into the year so you dont forget, microsoft says naaaaaaa you lose the remaining 11 months of paid software access.
Downloading movies you haven't paid for is also piracy even if there's no drm. Microsoft doesn't need to put any copy protection for it still to be piracy.
Piracy has nothing to do with copy protection.