AtlasOS - My Thought

[KnightKing777]

I appreciate the work that has gone into AtlasOS and the effort to improve Windows performance and usability. After testing and reviewing the project, I would like to share structured feedback that highlights both strengths and areas that need improvement.

What AtlasOS Does Well

AtlasOS is relatively easy to install and clearly delivers noticeable performance improvements. The system feels lighter, and the removal of unnecessary processes and bloatware has a real impact on responsiveness.

Key Concerns

Security trade offs are too aggressive
Options to disable mitigations for vulnerabilities such as Meltdown and Spectre are available (they are marked as not recommended, which is good, but this option should not exist at all due to the high security risk).

Core Isolation is disabled by default (this may expose the system to sophisticated kernel level malware, malicious drivers, and malicious code attempting to tamper with core system memory).

Branding changes are intrusive
AtlasOS modifies default user profile image, wallpapers (i don't have problem to that you can easly change it), themes and OEM information. While developers claim that these changes can be easily reverted (according to them: “Your wallpaper and profile picture can be changed manually with no effort, Atlas just replaces the very boring Windows defaults for those.” – source: https://github.com/orgs/Atlas-OS/discussions/1265), this is not entirely true. You cannot restore the default Windows profile picture because system profile picture is replaced. These are not additional profile icons but embedded system resources, and without access to original files or a clean installation, restoring them is not possible.

AtlasOS modifies OEM information (according to the developers: “Our use for implementing the OEM information is for the purpose of differentiating what version of our playbook a user has installed for support purposes. This has been the case for assisting with support since 0.2 and have no plans to change this at this time until an alternative way to differentiate versions is available for consideration.” – source: #1115). This approach does not make much sense. Atlas also modifies version information visible in winver, so the purpose of changing OEM information is unclear. If winver is not considered sufficient (which itself does not make sense), a better solution would be a dedicated application or even a simple text file containing all required information.

This is important because some OEM specific applications (especially on laptops) require correct OEM information to install properly, which may cause problems for less experienced users who are not aware of this.

The option to skip branding has been rejected by the developers (which is difficult to justify).

Lack of transparency
There is no complete and easily accessible list of all system modifications. While the project is open source, most users will not review the code themselves.

Important security statements are not visible enough (for example: “Fundamentally, unmodified Windows from Microsoft will always be the most trusted and secure version of Windows available.” – source: https://docs.atlasos.net/faq/general-faq/atlas-and-security/). These should be clearly presented on the main project page, as many users will not read extensive documentation.

Usability issues
Some users may encounter problems with peripherals (hardware devices) and local network devices such as printers or file servers, as well as missing features like Network Places.

What Could Be Improved

• Add an option to disable all branding during installation (this has been rejected multiple times without a clear reason)
• Provide a full and transparent list of all changes
• Include more visible warnings and avoid overpromising improvements
• Allow users to keep default Windows applications (or choose which ones to remove)
• Set security related options to safe defaults (research suggests these changes do not significantly improve performance but can be very important for security)
• Improve transparency and honesty about trade offs
• Move more configuration options to post installation (forcing choices during setup reduces clarity and makes it harder to revert unwanted changes)

I think thats all, cheers!