AtlasOS: A Windows Made By Gamers For Gamers

Are you seeking a way to enhance your gaming performance on Windows? If so, you may be interested in exploring AtlasOS. AtlasOS is a Windows version that asserts to provide gamers with a higher framerate, lower input delay and latency, more storage space, and superior privacy protection. It is also an open-source project that is transparent and compliant with the GPL-3.0 license.

AtlasOS is based on Microsoft Windows, but it has been thoughtfully re-engineered to eliminate unnecessary processes, applications, and telemetry that may have an impact on your gaming experience. According to its website, AtlasOS can decrease the number of background processes from 145 to 35, lower RAM usage from 2.3 GB to 900 MB, and increase the FPS 1% lows from 289 to 394.

It's important to note that AtlasOS is not a pre-activated version of Windows, so you will need a genuine key to activate it. You can download AtlasOS from its official website or GitHub repository, where you can also access the latest releases and documentation. AtlasOS is compatible with both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures and supports Windows 10 Pro or Home editions.

If you're keen on becoming a part of the AtlasOS community, you can visit its Discord server. Here, you can connect with other tech enthusiasts, ask questions, and receive support.

Installation instructions

You can find all the installation instructions here on the AtlasOS website.

You can also find a video guide by Syrm below

Controversy

AtlasOS has been in some hot water recently due to a Linus Tech Tips video that made the OS go viral. Due to this spike in popularity there was also increased scrutiny on the project, which brought some somewhat dubious claims to light, mainly centering around the security of the OS. This all started with a tweet from the twitter account @vxunderground

After this tweet there were quite a few users that felt called to the line "removed Windows Defender... and Security Updates" with one user even saying that this thought process was akin to not heeding proper road safety guidelines

The backlash got pretty severe so AtlasOS's official twitter account released an official statement about the situation, stating that the security updates made by Windows were not outright removed but there was no easy way to update the security patch as of right now. This succeeded in diffusing most of the building animosity towards the group in the thread

Edit (4/27/2023): It seems that atlas has made a megathread summarizing all points and countering them, link here

When Atlas was more niche and mostly for power users and gamers that know their way around Windows, we previously liked to give users a compromise of security for performance, privacy and ease of use by default, presuming that the users know the risks and how to avoid being compromised. However, due to our recent shift to being a more popular project, the security concerns have been brought up due to the expectation of everyone knowing the risks being unrealistic. For this reason, in future versions of Atlas, it is now a priority to give the users warnings about disabling security features and having features like Windows Update and Defender optional. Therefore, for the next release, you should be able to configure Atlas to be as secure as you'd like, potentially even more secure that stock Windows in some areas. So, keep a look out for the next version, as Atlas aims to fit everyone's needs at the end of the day. 😎

Conclusion

AtlasOS is an amazing OS with an amazing community, I personally have been daily driving it for nearly 2 years now with minimal issues. I can highly recommend Atlas as an alternative to debloating programs or other windows strippers as it feels the most complete, with a good amount of configuration options. Please do show them some love in their Discord server and join Low-End Lab where we will be discussing and benchmarking new Atlas updates as they come out! I hope to see you in both!