An operating system marketed to gamers disables a host of Windows security features enticing users with promises of  a smooth gaming experience which they may not realize is opening them up to potential attack.

“This is horrible,” Alex Ionescu, an established Windows security expert, said in an online chat after Motherboard showed them the operating system, called AtlasOS.

AtlasOS describes itself as a “transparent and streamlined modification of Windows,” according to the project’s website. The idea is that a default installation of Windows may not provide a satisfactory or optimal level of performance for people who play video games. In response, AtlasOS aims to “maximize performance” and result in higher frame rates while gaming, according to the website.

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“Overall, Atlas aims to bring more of a favour towards performance and usability compared to security,” developers for AtlasOS told Motherboard in an online chat. “However, we are working on making it as customisable as possible, as we understand the importance of security.”

Those tweaks include stripping out Windows Defender, according to AtlasOS. Windows Defender is Window’s antivirus tool. AtlasOS told Motherboard it disables Defender because it “contributes a lot to decreasing performance,” but the project recommends “using a third-party antivirus.”

AtlasOS does a lot more than disable Defender, though. “They also disable a bunch of critical security mitigations as well as hypervisor based security (VBS/HVCI),” Ionescu said. Virtualization Based Security (VBS) keeps extra sensitive information, such as login credentials, isolated and safe from the rest of the system. Again, AtlasOS told Motherboard this feature hurts performance. AtlasOS users can enable VBS if they wish, according to the AtlasOS website.

Realistically, ordinary gamers may need to worry more about other security issues than these modifications to their operating system. Hackers compromising the online accounts linked to video games, such as those that track Call of Duty progress, are common. Ultimately, ensuring their accounts have two-factor authentication enabled may be more important to them than the trade-off that AtlasOS provides.

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