Install the Debloated Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC as a Virtual Machine

If you have been a long time Microsoft Windows user, then you have most likely ran multiple versions of their Operating system on your computer such as Windows 7, Windows 10 and the current Windows 11 version. You may have also noticed that as Microsoft comes out with new versions of Windows, they get more complicated, take more hardware to run and come with more apps and “features” that we don’t really want. This is commonly referred to as bloatware and one of the first things many people do is “debloat” their Windows installation right after installing it.

There is a lightweight version of Windows 11 you can run on your computer which is a long-term support version of Windows 11 designed for embedded and IoT devices, that offers enhanced security, stability, and minimal feature updates for mission-critical applications. You can install this version of Windows on your physical computer or as a virtual machine (VM) if you want to test it out. In this article, we will be showing you how to install the debloated Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC as a virtual machine in VMware Workstation.

VMware Workstation Professional is now free to use and is one of the best desktop virtualization platforms available for home users. You can download it from the Broadcom website here. You will then need to install Workstation on your computer so you can then create your Windows 11 IoT virtual machine.

Configuring the Windows 11 Virtual Machine in VMware Workstation

To create a new virtual machine in VMware Workstation, you can click on the File menu and choose New Virtual Machine. Next, click on the Custom option and then on the Next button.

For the hardware compatibility, you can go with the default which should be the current version of VMware Workstation.

You will then need to browse to the Windows 11 IoT ISO file that can be downloaded from the Microsoft website here.

The next step involves choosing the operating system for your VM. Normally, VMware Workstation can read the ISO and choose the correct OS for you, but it doesn’t seem to do so for this version of Windows.

If you were to choose Windows 11 from the list, Workstation would force you to encrypt the virtual machine files, and it will also add a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) since that is a requirement for Windows 11. But for the IoT version, you do not need to use encryption or a TPM so you can choose Windows 10 to get around this.

Now you will need to name your virtual machine and choose a location to keep its files if you do not want to use the default. This name only applies to VMware and not to the Windows computer name itself.

Normally, you would use the UEFI boot option for Windows 11 but when using this for the IoT version, you may find that it won’t boot to the ISO image file to start the installation so you can use the BIOS option instead.

Now you can assign it however many processors and cores that you would like to use. Just be sure to use 2 or more cores to meet the Windows 11 CPU requirements.

Next, you should change the amount of allocated RAM for the VM to a higher number than the recommended. Just be sure that your host computer has enough RAM to run its own software and processes.

You can then leave the network type on NAT (Network Address Translation) so it will share the internet connection with your host computer.

For the SCSI controller, you can leave the default LSI Logic SAS choice.

You will then need to add a virtual hard drive to your VM to install Windows 11 on. You can use NVMe if you like or choose a different type.

Next, on the select disk step, you will need to choose Create a virtual disk to have one configured for the VM.

You can then change the size of this new virtual disk to make it as large as you like. Just be sure it’s at least 64 GB for the Windows 11 requirements. If you do not plan on backing up your VM to another location, we recommend storing the virtual disk as single file for the sake of simplicity and if you need to use it for a different virtual machine.

VMware Workstation will then name the virtual disk file but you can change the name if you need to.

You will then be shown a configuration summary screen and should then click on the Customize Hardware button for the next step.

Since Windows 11 IoT requires you to log in with a Microsoft account that is tied to your workplace or school, you can get around this by disabling the internet connection for the installation so you can use a local user account instead. To do this, click on Network Adapter and uncheck the box that says Connect at power on. Then you can click on the OK button to save the settings.

Installing Windows 11 IoT on Your New Virtual Machine

To install Windows 11 IoT LTSC on your virtual machine, you will need to click on Power on this virtual machine which will then open the VM console and boot to the ISO file.

The first screen you will see will ask you for your language, time and currency format. If you need to change anything, you can do so before clicking on Next.

You will then need to select your keyboard layout and change it if needed.

On the next screen, you will see an option to either install Windows 11 or repair your PC. Since this is a new installation, you will choose the install Windows 11 option and check the box that says I agree everything will be deleted including files, apps and settings.

After you click on the Next button, you will be asked to accept the license terms.

The next screen is where you can configure your virtual disk configuration. If you just want to use the entire disk for Windows, you can click on Next and do not need to configure a partition manually since the Windows setup will do it for you.

You can then click on the Install button to begin the installation process.

Once the Windows installation has begun, your computer will most likely be restarted a few times during the process.

You will then be taken to a familiar Windows 11 setup interface which should look familiar if you have ever installed Windows 11 before. You will be asked to do things such as configure your region and keyboard layout.

Since you disconnected the network\internet connection before starting the Windows setup, you will be asked to install a driver for your network adapter. Since we do not need to do this, we will click on I don’t have internet to continue.

Since Windows cannot get on the internet, it will automatically give you the option to use a local account so you can enter your name in this box.

On the next screen, you will need to type in a password you want to use for this user account.

Then you will need to answer three security questions in case you forget your password and get locked out of your computer.

On the next screen, you can choose which privacy settings you want to disable or leave enabled. We usually like to disable all of them unless you have a reason to leave one or more enabled. After you make your changes, click on the Accept button to continue.

Windows will then configure your user profile which can take a few minutes.

Once you log into your new Windows 11 IoT VM, you can go back to the virtual machine settings and enable the network adapter and make sure to check both boxes.

You should then install VMware Tools on your virtual machine to enhance things such as the VM’s video resolution and mouse movement functionality. To do so, click on the VM menu and then choose Install VMware Tools.

You should see a notification pop up from the lower right corner of the screen asking what to do with the VMware Tools virtual DVD.

If you click on this notification, you can then choose the option to Run setup64.exe to start the installation. If you missed this step, you can simply open File Explorer and navigate to the CD\DVD drive and run the setup file from there.

Installing VMware Tools is very simple and works the same way it does for other programs you install. You should be fine using the Typical option for the setup type.

Now that Windows is set up, you can click on the Start button and you will see how bare the Start menu is. This is because Windows 11 IoT is a basic or stripped down version of the operating system. It will even have older versions of the Windows Calculator and Notepad apps.

You will also notice that the Microsoft Store is missing, so if you want to install apps from there, you will need to add it back to Windows.

To do so, open an administrative command prompt and type the following command.

wsreset.exe -i

You will not see anything on the screen, but you need to wait a few minutes for the Microsoft Store installation to complete and then reboot the virtual machine. After it comes back up, you will have the Microsoft Store on your Start menu.

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