When it comes to a dedicated appliance, there are a few very important requirements, number one on the list would be “RELIABLE”. No matter what type of device it is that you’re building, you want it to work, and work 100% of the time. I help my OEM customers build all kinds of appliances in all kinds of industries and it doesn’t matter if it’s a medical device, digital sign, cash register or a slot machine, it must be reliable.
In my blog Why Windows 10 Forever, I discussed the fact that Microsoft will be updating and releasing a new version of Windows 10 every six months. For an OEM building an appliance, those are frightening words you do not want to hear. You need a stable and reliable device that doesn’t receive a new version of Windows 10 that might cause some problems. For this reason, most of my OEM customers design and build their device using the LTSC or Long-Term Service Channel edition, which is locked into build 1809.
There is a common misunderstanding that takes place with new OEM customers that are excited to get their hands on the LTSC 2019 edition. They hear it is locked to build 1809 and will never get any updates not realizing that there are two kinds of updates.
The two kinds of windows updates are “Feature” updates and “Quality” updates.
The “Feature” updates are almost self-explanatory, as they are updates that include new features to the Windows 10 operating system. When new feature updates are released they are all bundled into a major build version and are scheduled for every six months. That means that every March and September, Microsoft will be releasing new versions of Windows 10 that will update the build version to the year and month of their release. To see which version of Windows 10 you are running, simply type “WINVER” into the search bar of your Windows 10 system and hit enter. The LTSC edition blocks “Feature” updates so it will never receive any new feature updates which could affect the reliability of the device. It will always say “Version 1809” followed by a much longer build number such as (OS Build 14393.2125). In comparison the Semi-Annual edition also known as CBB or Current Branch for Business can show 1809, 1703, 1709, 1803 and so forth because it will receive new feature updates.
The second type of update known as “Quality” updates are created to help maintain the quality of the product. They consist of security patches, hot fixes and minor updates that may resolve problems discovered later in the life of the product.
What many customers fail to realize is that even though the Windows 10 IoT Ent LTSC version is locked into build 1809, the product itself still receives “Quality” updates. Microsoft treats every edition of Windows 10 s though it was a complete standalone edition. Just because a newer version has come out doesn’t mean they stop supporting the older editions. In fact, the LTSC edition will receive 10 years of support which means that for the next 10 years, the 1809 edition of Windows 10 will continue to be updated with “Quality” updates.
A common situation that takes place is an OEM customer that was very excited about the LTSC edition and locking their system down to build 1809 reaches out to me. They are not happy to discover that, after testing the LTSC product for a few weeks, that it is still receiving updates and they thought it would not get any updates. “Why is my device still receiving updates as I thought you told me this LTSC edition won’t allow them?” The confusion is the word “updates” as again there are two kinds of updates and yes, the LTSC edition will receive “Quality” updates for the 10 years of its life.
Let’s say you truly do not want a single update. If that is the case, you can do the following to prevent any updates at all. Keep in mind Microsoft will not support a device that isn’t kept updated as it may experience an issue that requires a quality update to resolve and thus they want your devices always kept up to date. But to completely disable Windows update service do the following…
To Stop automatic updates:
- VIA SERVICES: Disable the “Windows Update” Service by going to SERVICES, finding the Windows Update service. Stop the service and then change the Startup Type: to Disabled.
- VIA REGEDIT: Search on REGEDIT and hit enter to launch the registry editor.
- Navigate to the following registry key…
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\
- Right click on WINDOWS and click NEW and then click KEY.
- Name the KEY as “WindowsUpdate”
- Right click on WINDOWSUPDATE and click NEW, click KEY and name it “AU”.
- Click on AU and then right click anywhere on the right side in an empty area and select “NEW”, then click DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it “NoAutoUpdate”.
- Double click on “NoAutoUpdate” and set the data value to 1 which disables auto updates.
Microsoft has some great websites where you can review the different Windows 10 builds along with searching on different KB updates to know what they fix or improve.
- Windows 10 release information website
- Windows 10 update history website
- Microsoft Update Catalog website
- Using Registry to disable Updates
Want to completely disable Windows updates? TIP: Don’t control updates by disabling the Windows Update Service. Instead, control it through Group Policy Registry.
- For more information, check out section #29 here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/privacy/manage-connections-from-windows-operating-system-components-to-microsoft-services#bkmk-wu
- To completely disable set a “dummy” WSUS server, see the above link to see where to set the WSUS server
If you have any questions on Microsoft products, please reach out to our team via. msembedded@arrow.com.
