[German]A brief question, if anyone else has observed this. I just received the information that Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC installations were offered again a new feature update. It's no big deal, the update is not installed, but it's confusing. And it seems that this repeat itself sporadically since the June 2019 incident – I now have reports from August and September 2019 incidents.
Windows 10 LTSC versions, what it means
The abbreviation LTSC stands for Long-Term Servicing Channel (formerly also referred to as Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB)). This is a long-term support version of Windows 10 based on the Enterprise edition. The LTSC version doesn't provides features like Cortana, Edge and the UWP apps (everything Microsoft likes to update in Windows 10).
Microsoft is committed to providing bug fixes and security patches for each LTSC version over a 10-year period. Instead of releasing feature updates every 6 months, Microsoft releases a new Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC version every 2-3 years. Companies can install these new LTSC versions optionally as in-place upgrades on a machine – whereby the license conditions of Microsoft are to be considered then (only with a software maintenance contract an upgrade is covered – in other cases a new license would have to be bought).
Microsoft has planned the LTSC versions for scenarios where nothing changes to Windows 10 (e.g. in devices, ATMs etc.), but not for office environments. In such environments, feature updates for new LTSC versions are not offered within the the 10-year lifecycle, that's the deal.
| LTSC version | Windows 10 pendant | Release |
| Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSC | Windows 10, Version 1507 | 7/29/2015 |
| Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSC | Windows 10, Version 1607 | 8/2/2016 |
| Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC | Windows 10, Version 1809 | 11/13/2018 |
According to this website Microsoft has so far released the LTSC versions listed within the table above. The left column shows the LTSC names, while the middle column shows the Windows 10 counterpart on whose code basis the LTSC version is based.
The incident in June 2019
It was a crude story that took place in June 2019: Administrators and users operating a Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 in the corporate environment were suddenly surprised to find that the machines were offered a functional update to the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (Version 1903).
From the kernel point of view this would make sense, as the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 is based on the development branch for Windows 10 October 2018 Update (Version 1809). But LTSC versions, according to my explanations above, don't get any function updates.
I had reported about this incident in June 2019 in the blog post Crazy: Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 offered a feature update to 1903. Anyone who initiates the download and installation of the feature update via the link on the Windows Update page is relieved to find out that nothing is happening. Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC notices that something is wrong and downloaded nothing. A German user notified me, that the same occurred with his Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 1607.
The technical explanation at the time was that a bug in the UUP system (Microsoft's Unified Update Platform) was responsible for this effect. The feature update is displayed but not downloaded and installed. Microsoft solved the issue in June 2019 at short notice, so the faulty feature update disappeared. All in all not a really big deal, but confusing for those concerned. That's why I posted it in the blog at the time.
Does the effect occur repeatedly?
The exciting question is whether we are dealing with a repeating issue? Already in August 2019 there was this comment claiming the same.
Sorry for coming back onto this topic…just today setting up a new machine with Win 10 LTSC based on the .316 version and upon requesting further updates, I am being offered again the 1903 feature pack???
Seems like this is recurring to fail and also preventing any other updates from coming through… :-(
Anybody else with the same issue – or having a hint, how to overcome it?
This happened to the user when setting up a new machine. However, there was no further answer to his question as to whether there were any other affected users. At the moment, in September 2019, another reader wrote, that the same thing has just happened to him. He writes:
I am having the same issue on one out of eight identical laptops. No idea how to fix it, though.
It's probably just a few isolated cases that this happens to. In a follow-up comment EP writes that the user should block the feature update with wushowhide.diagcab from KB3073930. That's a solution (thanks to EP for that hint). But: how poor has it all become that we now have to use helper tools to block updates that should never end up on a machine because of the missing update control? So here's the question: Are there any other blog readers who have had this happen?
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Yup, I've had this happen on both the LTSB 2016 and LTSC 2019 branch. Running them as VMs in Workstation.
There are other issues with those versions, for instance issues with program defaults that assume there are UWP apps that actually aren't there
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