PCA Forums

Exec, weren't you playing around with stripped down versions of Win7 at one time?

Basically this strips Win10 down to a very bare bones install. Good for a lightweight PC running as a media center, kiosk, offline, or very limited internet access. Not sure this is really any good for gamers as they claim.

Be aware it also removes all security features, including Windows Defender. If you're going to use it for web browsing (or gaming), I'd recommend a 3rd party AV (not sure if there's any free ones I'd trust anymore). I checked Reddit real quick and I didn't see any way of enabling Defender. I think too many other security processes are disabled to allow it to run.

You can download an ISO of this. You'll need a Windows key (like a Win7 key) or install on a system that was previously licensed for Win10 (Microsoft uses hardware fingerprinting now for licenses). I'm guessing this is just a customized version of Windows, like the Windows PE variants, which is legal. Latest ISO is based on Windows 10 20H2, which is a bit dated (although, ironically, the version I'm still running on my workstation and gaming PCs).

Also, if you just want to play with it, keep in mind you don't need a license to run any version of Win10/11. Windows still runs without a license, it just disables some personalization features, and nags you occasionally.

I might try this on my old spare media center PC. Curious to see if it would make a good OS for my old Media Center PCs whenever I decide to abandon Windows Media Center, and upgrade to something modern.

The main features of AtlasOS include a reduced number of running processes to lower computing stress on the CPU, while lowering system latency at the same time; more storage space, as the OS ISO is pretty small compared to Windows official images; a focus on privacy because Windows telemetry has been disabled; open source transparency, so users and coders can check what kind of modifications AtlasOS actually brings to Windows 10.

When compared to a "stock" Windows 10 21H1 version, the latest release of AtlasOS (0.5.2) cuts the number of running processes from 185 to around 35; RAM usage is greatly lowered as well, going from 1.5GB to 600MB.

Article: https://www.techspot.com/news/97095-che ... amers.html

Atlas site: https://atlasos.net/

Their Github page: https://github.com/Atlas-OS/Atlas

Okay, installed this on an old 2011 Dell Optiplex 790 USFF 2nd Gen Core i5 2400S, 4GB. I use these as Media Center PCs.

Since AtlasOS is very small (ISO is only 1.5GB) it installed very quickly. I left it disconnected from the Internet, as recommended, but it never even tried to prompt me to connect to a network and took me straight to the local user setup.

On first boot it opens a CMD window and runs several scripts to configure the OS, disable services, etc. Yo do not want to interrupt this, Then it reboots.

On reboot you have a very clean desktop. There's no Edge browser (although Internet Explorer is available, probably because Microsoft doesn't give you any way of totally eliminating it. There's no Defender, no OneDrive, no Cortana crap, and only the most basic Windows apps installed. There is an Atlas wallpaper.

Windows 10 found all the necessary drivers except the video driver, but I found the latest Intel HD 2000 driver on Intel's website.

Boot drive is only using 7GB, and it is indeed only using 800 MB of RAM with nothing loaded.

It installs Windows 10 Pro. there is no option for Home, probably because Home doesn't have the group policy editor and other things they use to configure AtlasOS. So if you want to activate it, you'll need a Win7 or 8 Pro key. As I said, though, you don't have to activate Windows - it will run perfectly fine with some minor restrictions, mostly involving personalization settings. All described here:

Start menu defaults to the basic list with no tiles.

NOTE: Windows Updates is disabled, so again I wouldn't recommend this for gaming, but it's perfect for my media center PCs.

What Happens if You Don’t Activate Windows 10 or Windows 11?
https://softwarekeep.com/blog/what-happ ... windows-10

Screenshots from my install (clock is wrong because my CMOS battery died and reset BIOS). Clock auto-sync is disabled by default, although you can turn it on:

Interesting. Is this a MS product? Like you, I would be interested in installing it on one of my spare Dell laptops. I guess you could play older type games if you don't need an internet connection.

It's still regular Windows 10 20H2. The authors have repackaged it without the files that aren't being used, which keeps the installer small (1.5GB), and have modified the installer to run a bunch of scripts that disables a bunch of services and processes, making it as light weight as possible.

Perfectly legal under Microsoft's license.

I just wonder how safe this is considering it's a "home brew"? Wonder if Malwarebytes would find any loggers or such.

I might want to grab a copy to use on my VMWare host at home. Much more lightweight and I use 3rd party AV apps.

I just wonder how safe this is considering it's a "home brew"? Wonder if Malwarebytes would find any loggers or such.

Not too worried about it. It's Open Source on Github, and they have a good reputation. It's the actual Win10 20H2 installer with superfluous files removed, and some scripts to disable services.

I might want to grab a copy to use on my VMWare host at home. Much more lightweight and I use 3rd party AV apps.

Excellent idea!

That is really neat. This version would be ideal for running equipment where Internet access isn't required.