I'm currently reinstalling Windows and have been using Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC on my laptop, which is free of the usual Microsoft bloatware. However, I accidentally installed the Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC version on my PC, and I'm facing issues like missing dependencies for DirectX, camera support, and media codecs. As a result, half of my Steam games won't run, and any attempt to install the missing dependencies results in errors.
On my laptop, I use Windows 11 IoT Non-N Enterprise LTSC, and I haven't run into these problems, but I mainly use it for work, so I haven't tested gaming with it. I'm wondering if these issues are typical for the regular Non-N IoT Enterprise version? Should I just go for the Pro version and use a tool like Chris Titus Tech Utility to remove the Microsoft bloatware? Does that also keep the bloatware from coming back after updates? Thanks for any insights!
2 Answers
It seems like you're running into issues because the IoT version isn't really designed for gaming, especially the N variant. You can add back some missing features, but it can be more hassle than it's worth. In my experience, I wouldn’t recommend using the Chris Titus tool since it caused some problems for me in the past. Instead, you might want to try the autounattend.xml generator to customize a fresh installation.
This tool looks quite useful! I think I will try the regular IoT version first and use this if needed instead of the Chris Titus tool.
I use the Non-N version, and it’s been great for gaming. Everything runs smoothly on Steam. You might miss out on features like the Xbox Game Bar and the Microsoft Store, but you can easily install those with a command. Honestly, it's a better experience compared to Windows 11 Pro.
Sounds exactly like what I'm looking for! Is the command for the store `wsreset -i`?
Is it true that the only difference between IoT and Non-IoT versions is the licensing? I’ve heard gaming works fine on it.