Yeah, I think that's the reason; they're just going to want to use the private (Warbird-protected) calls for internal license value queries. However, it seems not every team is implementing it this way: The check for "Cortana-AllowCortana-Enabled" that is done as part of OOBE (to decide whether or not to display the "Cortana" screen which is new for RS1) uses the public SLGetWindowsInformationDWORD call (CloudExperienceHostBroker.dll). At that point you could directly patch winlogon as well, which would probably be easier.
I don't think you're wrong, I'm just personally of the view that petitions etc. don't do much. I'm jaded. (Plus, IMHO, with Windows 10, we've already seen that Microsoft are pretty hellbent on providing a new experience and are unrepentant about the consequences, if I'm making any sense and not rambling on? I just really don't see a point in MS reversing their decision now that it's been made - seems to me that they'll get more money from Enterprise licenses - worth it for the sake of, from their PoV, a few grumblings about some 10 Pro users going back to 8.1 or whatever) Ah, you're right, I'm used to hooking imported functions and manipulating the result where possible but I overlooked that it's much easier just, yeah, as you said, patching winlogon instead of dealing with a function where the result is encrypted (I'll blame it on the fact that I'm not actually a programmer, but it seems I need to know some tricks in order to gain some degree of control over Windows 10 - if it weren't for me figuring out [well, not actually me] how to hook MusNotificationUx.exe when WU is set to notification mode to not show that modal "you've ignored my nice toast prompts telling you to update, so now you only get one choice: OK" dialog, I'd've probably gone back to 8.1 myself - even with the audio improvements, usermode font rendering, an OpenWith.exe that doesn't suck on a desktop computer...)
This news is seriously making me consider a clean install of Win10 Enterprise once ISOs of the Anniversary Update version are available (I thought about LTSB N version but I still want the ability to install some apps in future). Since this would be the first time I'll ever be installing Enterprise, please excuse the n00b questions. 1) Which would be the best way to activate it? 2) Has anyone created a list of all the Group Policies to set to disable telemetry and various other nonsense in the Enterprise version? 3) Given the extra features it has, how heavy or resource hungry is Enterprise compared to Pro?
Of course there is, but I suppose if one hates MS' apps in general then WiMP (Windows Media Player) would be disliked as well, right? (I've never used the N versions, but I've also not touched WiMP either after Win98.) No wonder then that the N version is mentioned more! Meanwhile I'd still appreciate answers to my queries from the experts here...
What stops you is the thing that reads those registry settings and the way it's coded to ignore them on specific SKUs (specifically, the licensing values present in those).
me too planning to change from pro to enterprise or LTSB 1) I think the best way to activate it is using MTK 2) some of users has made reg tweaks for telemetry crap cmiiw
AFAIK Group Policy Editor is only a GUI for making registry edits, which is why if the setting is supported then the exact same changes can be made directly via the registry in the Home version too. So clearly if gpedit doesn't work in Pro for certain cases then MS is ignoring those registry settings. I'm reading about MTK, KMSpico and KMS_VL_ALL and trying to decide which one is best (least resource usage, least number of files and registry edits and so on). I asked the same thing also in one thread but no-one has replied yet. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that setting Telemetry Collection level to 0 (zero) in Win10 Enterprise (i.e. lowest level below Basic which is not available via UI) will also stop Windows Update from working properly. Can someone confirm if this is true?
They will not take effect in editions other than Enterprise, Education and Server. Believe me, I checked.
It's named "Enterprise LTSB" for a reason. LTSB is a servicing branch for Enterprise, just like CB (Current Branch) and CBB (Current Branch for Business).
This is a good thing, as it will keep smaller business users away from Windows 10, they can't afford Enterprise and can't risk piracy either. They'll stick to 7 and 8, and Microsoft will have to extend support for those, like they did for Windows XP. That's choice for the masses, you can use whichever you like, without denied support and updates.