Forum Discussion
Which versions to upgrade to - confused
The current Windows 10 version is 1909, and the current LTSC is 2019. Your Windows 10 Edu 1909 is already up to date and should auto-upgrade with every new release.
The LTSB/LTSC versions do not support any kind of direct feature upgrade over Windows Update. You can however, upgrade to a newer LTSC version using Windows Setup. It is also possible to upgrade from LTSC to semi-annual channel with the same method.
To Upgrade LTSC either to a newer LTSC or to semi-annual, you first need the correct setup media.
You can download the current semi-annual setup media directly from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
You have to download newer LTSC media from your volume license portal.
After you have the correct media, start setup.exe on the media, providing your product key on the command line. If you don't provide a product key, upgrade with keeping files and settings will be greyed out!
setup.exe /pkey xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
You should also re-evaluate the need for LTSC versions altogehter. For normal clients you should always use the semi-annual channel and only use LTSC for mission-critical systems (i.e. not end-user devices).
You can read more about LTSC here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/
and about Windows 10 upgrade paths here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/windows-10-upgrade-paths
Thank you for your reply.
If I may clarify.
1) Using Windows 10 Education will be fine, will auto-upgrade ?
2) Do not use LTSC for normal PCs \ Notebooks (although due to naming changes, product versions that display Windows 10 LTSB will be replaced with Windows 10 LTSC in subsequent feature updates).
3) LTSB doesn't upgrade to Windows 10 Education ?
4) Any PCs \ Laptops with LTSB - will these continue to be secure or do they simply need replacing with Windows 10 Education ? (I'm aware that LTSB feature updates are not as frequent as other Windows 10 servicing models)
I just want to make sure that normal PCs \ laptops are secure, updated and any future upgrades can take place rather than having to wipe the PCs \ notebooks clean.
Thank you again.
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Not directly. LTSC is always Windows 10 Enterprise. What you could do though, is upgrade from Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC to Windows 10 Enterprise semi-annual channel. Then, afterwards, change Windows 10 Enterprise to Windows 10 Education (this is neither an upgrade, nor a downgrade). You would need two licensce keys for this though. First a license key for Windows 10 Enterprise to upgrade LTSC to semi-annual, then another license key for Edu to switch from Enterprise to Education.
4) From a security perspective, the LTSC versions are all supported for 10 years. So you are fine until 2025. I would still recommend switching to semi-annual channel because you are missing out on a lot of features, modern apps and newer security features which just aren't present in the older LTSC-versions.
You can get all release informations about the Windows versions and their end of support dates here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-information/
Really appreciate your replies thank you.
Yes, I know some customers didn't want all the apps and stuff that comes with many versions of Windows 10 and wanted a scaled down version, so we installed LTSB. Have recently been installing Education and quite like it.
- Hello
I would like to know if it is possible update from Windows 10 semi annual to Windows 10 LTSC.
Thank you a lot! BR!
