Windows, unlike Linux, does not have distributions, since this is a product of the GPL license and the Microsoft operating system is not free, but completely proprietary and proprietary. However, this time we are not going to talk about the benefits of free software, but rather about an unofficial version of Windows designed for games called AtlasOS. What features does it bring? Is it worth installing or is it a time bomb on legs instead? Are there other alternatives to it?
One of the most typical concepts of the Internet and the world of pira-cy are Repacks, the idea is none other than to illegally launch programs onto the network, but using a different installer in order to bypass the protection against copies is not authorized. However, within this world there are people who decide to make changes to the final folder. Some people installing malicious software to mine or spy on, others, instead, adding third-party or self-made enhancements.
But what is AtlasOS really?
What is not usual is to see modified versions of Windows itself, as is the case with this AtlasOS, which is an optimized version of the tenth version of the Redmond operating system, and the most used today, so that works on less powerful computers. The way to get it? Reduce the number of processes Windows normally runs on the processor from 185 on average to 35 , leading to the amount of RAM used being cut from 1.5 GB to 0.6 GB.
The idea behind this modified version of Windows 10 is none other than the elimination of all the elements that are not essential for video games . However, they cannot have an operating system as shortened as that of the Xbox, which, due to not having it, lacks the OLE and COM libraries. So they have not sniped in that sense, but they have made cuts to a series of functions and applications in AtlasOS that cause the system to be a security leak :
- The use of the TPM or Trusted Platform Module to save compromised passwords off the hard drive.
- BitLocker.
- Windows Defender
- Speech recognition.
- The ability to create restore points.
Although the most important change is the elimination of all security performance mitigations that result in the average execution time of the processes being longer. Thus, they achieve that the average latency of these is lower and the less time the CPU spends working on them, the higher the average frame rate.
How have they done it?
The creation of this version of Windows is not an advanced engineering secret, rather its creators have used NTLite , a tool that allows you to easily remove Windows components that are not needed. Of course, this carries with it not only security limitations, but also potentially compatibility.
So it is something that anyone can mount, in any case, do not forget that the important thing to have the maximum performance in any program is to eliminate superfluous processes, but for this it is not necessary to install a version of Windows that leaves security of your data in question.