Lightroom with Win10 LTSC

[Mattes5FEA]

Hi,

I'm working in an academic institute and we decided to use Win10 LTSC (recent: 1809). Now Lightroom (4.0) needs at least Win10 1903 to get installed and updated. Is there a way to get the recent Lightroom running on the recent Win10 LTSC?

Thanks in advance,

Mattes

[AxelMatt]

...Is there a way to get the recent Lightroom running on the recent Win10 LTSC?

No. contact your administrator to update your Windows.

[Mattes5FEA]

Hi,

thank you for your response! As I said unfortunately there is no more recent version of Windows 10 LTSC out now.

[Lupinity]

Sorry, but this is in no way a correct or helpful answer.

You could say "we don't support Windows 10 LTSC", but you cannot say "go and upgrade it". The whole point of the LTSC version is stability. There are no feature updates for three consecutive years.

I cannot quite understand how a suite of tools for professional use cannot support professional work environments. I literally have to use my gaming PC if I want to run Lightroom or XD...

[Mattes5FEA]

So it seems we have to wait for the next LTSC Branch (2022) to use Lightroom again... WTF!

[Lupinity]

Agreed.

Being a software developer myself, I am very disappointed that Adobe developers obviously prioritize using the latest fancy UWP components instead of trying to go for compatibility. When using LTSC, sooner or later you can't use the most important apps out of your Creative Cloud subscription anymore. I don't even know if that's legally permissible tbh.

In any case, these are very bad software development practices.

[Test Screen Name]

There has been bad practice, certainly, if someone is trying to run CC or other design apps on LTSC. What is going on? This is surely an IT department out of control. LTSC is meant for systems that value stability over everything else, such as those running medical equipment, or air traffic control. Specialist single apps, not to be risked by doing other things. It's not for people that want to run the latest apps and opt out of Microsoft's normal forced upgrade policy. As such, developers of normal end user software would be wasting their time targeting or supporting LTSC, because their target audience should under no circumstances be running it. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/ltsc-what-is-it-and-when-should-it-be-use...

[Lupinity · Accepted solution]

Sorry, but this is simply wrong.

As a EU business user, running LTSC is the only way to run Windows 10 GDPR-compliant. If there was a way to use the bleeding edge versions of Windows 10 secure, data protection compliant and without risking to break the system if Microsoft tosses out a breaking update too early, I would certainly take it. While this is not going to happen, every user concerned with a minimum interest in those asepcts will not be able to use parts of Adobe's software. Clearly, Linux is not an alternative for the simple fact that Adobe never had any ambitions to support it, and while I do own a recent Macbook Pro, the performance of those devices are way inferior to anything else I use.

On a side note, for running LTSC on medical equipment, for air traffic control or even more critical infrastructure, I am convinced that Windows 10 is a wrong choice altogether.

Speaking of developers wasting there time: Adobe did take the time to switch to UWP from an existing and fully working WPF foundation, knowing that it would factually end support for a sizeable number of clients. I accepted to have Windows 8.1 clients not supported anymore, it's a dying species despite still receiving support until 2023. But to really need to be on a specific branch of Windows 10 to use the software is a little ridiculous. What is it in detail that Lightroom and XD needs that requires constant updates? If it worked fine a few months ago, what was the incentive to include features that required an updated version of Windows? Honestly, if I developed my apps that way, targetting only the most recent browsers, Android and iOS versions, or breaking every 5 months because their hardware or software environment needs some major maintenance, I would lose all my clients, and for good reason.

It's interesting that you categorize the Adobe suite to be "normal end user software". I always thought it was beyond being just overpriced toys for the normal end user? I don't see useful alternatives, do you?