i upgraded to windows 10... from windows 11
I had said back in July last year that I had made peace with Windows 11 in that I accepted its awfulness. As I've said before, while Linux is my daily driver, I keep a second computer with Win11 on it for the very short list of things I need Windows for.
Well, that's changed, because I got spooked.
Windows Update KB5074109 was released, and on "some PCs" it caused Windows 11 to have bugs all over the frickin' place, the worst of which being an UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error. But then, but then... some users attempting to uninstall that 'update' would encounter error 0x800f0905, effectively blocking the rollback process. And how many is "some PCs"? No idea. Hundreds? Thousands? Many thousands? No clue.
Did my computer go nuts? Fortunately, no, but I think I know why.
Before I say why, there was an OOB (out-of-band) fix-for-the-"fix" released by Microsoft for Win11. I remember that update being large and taking a while to install and finish.
Even though the OOB thing installed successfully, the damage had been done, and I was spooked. I'm pretty sure the only reason my Win11 computer didn't blow up is because I barely use it, and because it was almost a bone stock installation with barely any software on it.
Still, it is absolutely insane that an official real-deal update was that bad. I can honestly say I never saw that happen on XP, 7 or even 10.
Speaking of which...
I switched to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC
I have to give a disclaimer right up front: Don't do this. I'm able to get away with it solely because of the way I use my second computer, which I'll explain a bit.
Windows IoT is Windows Internet of Things, formerly known as Windows Embedded. LTSC means Long-Term Servicing Channel. This particular version of Windows 10 has security updates available all the way to January 2032.
Is Win10 IoT LTSC good for use as a daily driver OS in the home? No. At best, you'll get less than two years more out of 10 by using it, and I'll tell you exactly why. Microsoft will probably drop support for the Edge browser in Win10 come October 2028. Once that happens, other major browsers will most likely quickly follow suit and stop making Win10 versions. And not having a modern browser in Windows or any OS is just a bad idea.
Win10 IoT LTSC is meant for things like point-of-sale systems, kiosks, maybe a computer that runs heavy equipment, and things of that ilk.
The reason Win10 IoT LTSC is a good fit for me is because I primarily needed it for legacy programs. Some of the legacy software I have is really old, but Win10 can run it just fine.
Win11 actually ran that old software okay, and I really was set to run Win11 for the long term. But again, that update which so many people had problems with... uh-uh, no. Not happening. While nothing bad happened to my computer, it could have just from that official update.
I can understand the allure of Win10 IoT LTSC, but it's a false hope
Not since Windows 2000 Professional have I seen a Windows so clean out of the gate after a fresh installation. It would be all too easy to experience that and think, "Yes... YES. This is what I want my Windows to be. THIS RIGHT HERE."
Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up too high.
Gamers have already discovered the hard way that Win10 IoT LTSC isn't great for gaming. Some game launchers just outright don't work, DirectX updates are missing, it doesn't support the latest gaming hardware, no Microsoft store, and so on.
And even if you don't game, other things like modern mice and modern printers may not work with it at all.
I knew all this before installing Win10 IoT LTSC. What I wanted, and got, was a Windows that's "all business", so to speak. In fact, it's installed on what's technically classified as a business class computer. Very vanilla. And that's definitely one of the computer hardware environments this particular Windows "likes".
What works best with Win10 IoT LTSC?
An example of the hardware I'm talking about is a Dell Optiplex. Just a plain black PC box like you'd see in an office or a bank. Plain box, plain wired keyboard, plain wired mouse, plain Dell 1080p monitor. This is the type of computer hardware Win10 IoT LTSC would install to easily and have no issues.
If you keep it plain, keep it vanilla, only upgrade the RAM, and use SSD as the main drive, that's the ideal hardware environment.
I still won't use it as my daily driver
While this IoT Windows is the closest thing to Windows 7 since Windows 7 (and I still miss that OS), it's not enough to sway me away from Linux.
As an OS for my second computer used for very specific legacy things, Win10 IoT LTSC is fine. As a daily driver OS, no. 2028 seems like it's far away right now, but it's really not. If the boom is dropped with no more major modern browsers for Win10 by that time, I'm okay with that since Win10 isn't the main OS I use.
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Published 2026 Jan 28