AtlasOS Review

I don’t review Custom ISO or Custom Windows. Anything that requires downloading ISO is an immediate red flag. AtlasOS takes a different approach using official Microsoft ISOs and modifying them using an open source tool.

00:00 - What is AtlasOS
01:12 - The Security Problems
05:38 - What is Removed
05:56 - How its installed
06:07 - Whats in the Atlas Playbook
06:57 - Atlas Wizard Run
08:10 - Recommendations for AtlasOS
11:52 - Atlas Configuration Tools .

[ChrisTitusTech]

Please note: I do NOT review Custom Windows ISOs. If it requires you to download an ISO from a shady file sharing site or torrent... IT SHOULD NEVER BE USED!

[xyueta]

Hey, main atlas dev here :). Thanks for all suggestions, and we are happy to be featured here.

[SK_]

Thank you so much for making this video! <3
I SWEAR I was trying to look into this so hard since I saw this on LTT.

[Infinite_Manifest]

I understand your concerns with AtlasOS, but your concerns are actually the reason why Atlas is attractive to me. You said it perfectly when you said that it can be used as a temporary system just for certain tasks you might want to accomplish. I'm going to go ahead and pick it up and check it out for an offline device.

[KhairyIbrahim_]

AtlasOS is for people who use Linux as daily driver but still need a windows virtual machine for some proprietary apps and gaming. This is the best use case for AtlasOS in my opinion. And I think Chris did a great job of explaining why people can't use AtlasOS as main operating system the main reason being some of Windows security features are disabled by the AtlasOS team. and i guess everyone knows how good is the relationship between windows and viruses. :)

[amadensor]

I would be curious to see performance difference between something extreme like this, and something more gentler like your decrapify script.

[thisismelsemail]

So glad to see you did a video on this. Just learned about it because of the LTT video and was wondering how safe it is. Writing this comment before I actually watch the video admittedly, I installed it on a spare laptop I have and the only complaint I have about it is it seems like they really stripped the OS down to the point where you can't even add stuff like group policy editor into windows home like you normally would. I'm sure your video will shed some more light on everything for me though.

[TwiggehTV]

This is why i look at LTT as an entertainment channel, not a HOWTO channel.
I like seeing what they do, but i dont ever take any advice from them.

[wingflanagan]

I'm a software developer and I use Atlas OS as a VM image for testing. So far, I have not come across any problems with things either working or not working that don't also behave the same way when deployed on our own desktop images within the org. Basically, I use it as a sanity check. Once it works on my VM, I give it to IT for deployment testing, with a fair amount of confidence that I'm not wasting their time. For me, the lack of security, small size, and tiny resource footprint are kind of the point. My hope is that the scripts will ultimately be flexible enough to include or exclude security features for those of us who either like to live dangerously or who sandbox it as a testing environment.

[neonshadow]

Might be kind of silly but MSPaint being removed would be a real bummer for me. I don't use it for anything major but I use it for a lot of quick tasks because it's easy to use to accomplish some simple tasks.

[piecingtogethergamingpcs]

This is my thoughts on this Chris and yes I watched the LTT video, I can see myself maybe using this in a duel boot situation possibly running this as a Gaming only OS and then duel booting a more secure OS for anything else. I definitely think Atlas has hit a homerun with this in terms of creating a better suited OS for gaming, but I'm in agreence with you on the holes this leaves in security. I wouldn't do my banking on it lets just put it that way and leave it there. I think I'd duel boot this and use some type of more secure Linux Distro for those sorts of tasks. Cheers

[JuanPabloRojasW]

So for a completely isolated machine, out of the network, say, not to do any kind of social stuff, browsing the internet etc, this would be great, to use exclusively as a CADD workstation for renderings and dedicated solely to work. sounds too good to be true. Thanks for sharing Chris. (BTW, I find somewhat confusing downloading the OS from their site at least to try it in a VM)

[DebianDelinium]

This is exactly what I have been wanting! I'm going to install this!

[dreamtreater]

I'm really happy with the choices the Atlas devs made, also the security ones. My usecase is I am a musician, I play vst's on my dedicated laptop in Cantabile, and I don't want any random virus scan starting when I am in a pianosolo. Also, it is always offline. My OS needs a fileexplorer, a startbutton, and that's it.

[markwiering]

Here is my take on it.

The update system of Windows 10 and 11 is extremely aggressive. It downloads updates without your permission and installs them without your permission. Even if you specifically tell Windows 10/11 to stop updating (*turn off automatic updates*), it will STILL update.

If you stop the service for automatic updates, another service will start that service again. If you disable ALL services that have anything to do with automatic updates AND you edit the registry to disable it, Windows 10/11 will still find a way to update.

I, for example, followed a very complicated YouTube tutorial on how to disable automatic updates on Windows 10/11 once and for all, which included turning it off, persistently disabling four services, going into the registry and changing many lines there... and I thought it worked... until Windows 10 started updating again...

The only way to stop automatic updates on Windows 10/11 without shutting off Internet, is to completely break Windows 10/11. Not disabling some things, but actually destroying it. Cripple it. Cutting off its arms and legs. Make it such that Windows 10/11 simply *cannot* update any more, because all body parts responsible for that are cut off, at the very base.

That is the only way to stop automatic updates. So, I hail AtlasOS for doing that! 😀

It's like a robot that keeps walking, despite you having pressed the button times to stop walking. Then you use the physical switch to remove the connection to its legs, but the robot - somehow - still manages to use those mechanical legs. Then you cut off the wires leading to those legs. The robot now stops walking, but after a while, it starts moving its legs again.

Then you physically remove the robot's mechanical legs, so that no matter what, the robot just *can't* walk any more, because the legs are missing.

That is the only way to disable automatic updates with Windows 10/11. Not trying to disable things, but remove them. Remove them completely. Completely cut off part of the system. Remove the robot's mechanical legs. Only then, the system stops updating.

[pyrotonic]

I was fully expecting this video to just be you dogging on Atlas for 16 minutes, but you brought up a lot of good points and were very constructive about it, nice video.

[Gryfang]

Thanks for the PSA! As it's kind of touted as a gaming OS and most games have to be run online now, not having security features is just asking for trouble.

[tobycortes]

its a dedicated task OS, so theres that, as far my experience, IT KICKS ASS !!!! ITS GOOOD if you only want to use 1 apliction, like music making, or video editing, or graphics design, WITHOUT all the BS in the background, soooo good i like it a lot !!! I DO RECOMMEND FOR DEDICATED TASKS

[Jimmyhogs]

I think installing ReviOS through the ISO is much better than using playbook by an infinite amount of times, because playbook isn't the most stable and it's better to install the drivers you want, not the ones that are automatically installed. ReviOS also has a playbook as well.

[SinisterPuppy]

Hopefully they add a way to customize the optimization process. Thanks for giving it a spin and sharing your thoughts. I'll keep on eye on Altus since I like the idea but you're right to much is removed to be put on a daily driver.