Are you a gamer? Reduce your pain of using (dualbooted) Windows :: doismiu

If you have read my previous posts about building a Home Server via CLI, you know exactly how I feel about Microsoft’s operating system. To me, using Windows for work or development is a waste of performance, privacy, and sanity. It consumes RAM just to exist, sends telemetry data about your mouse movements to Redmond, and restarts without your permission to install an update that changes the icon of the calculator.

However, I have a confession: I like to shoot things. Virtual things, obviously. And here we hit a wall. While the Linux community has performed miracles with Proton and the Steam Deck, there is a category of games that simply refuses to cooperate: Competitive Shooters.

If you, like me, suffer from the addiction of Destiny 2 or are trying to enjoy the chaos of Battlefield 6, you have encountered the Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat barrier. These systems (BattlEye, Ricochet, Vanguard) demand deep access to the OS kernel to ensure you aren’t using wallhacks. And they don’t trust Linux. To them, if you are on Linux, you are a hacker until proven otherwise.

So, we are forced to have a dual-boot. But we don’t have to accept the “Candy Crush” and “TikTok App” filled bloatware that is a standard Windows 11 installation.

We are going to build a Windows Gaming Console. A system stripped of everything except what is needed to launch Steam and run the game.

The Holy Grail: Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC

The first mistake amateurs make is installing Windows 10/11 Home or Pro. These versions are not operating systems, they are advertising delivery platforms.

The solution is the LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) version, specifically the IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021.

Why?

No Microsoft Store.
No Cortana.
No Edge (unless you want it).
No Apps (News, Weather, Xbox Game Bar overlay nonsense).
Updates: It only receives security updates. No “Feature Updates” that break your drivers.
Support: It is supported until 2032.

It is the cleanest, most stable version of Windows capable of running modern games. It is what Windows 7 wishes it could be in 2025.

Step 1: Acquiring the Image

I won’t post direct links here because I don’t want legal trouble, but if you search for “Massgrave” on Google or GitHub, you will find the way. You are looking for the ISO with the checksum for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021.

Verify the SHA-256 hash. Privacy matters, but security matters more.

Step 2: The “Post-Install” Script

Just like I created a script to automate the Ubuntu Server installation, we need to automate the “cleaning” of Windows. Even LTSC needs some tweaks to be a pure gaming machine.

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run the logic below. This isn’t a copy-paste script, but a guide on what you need to change:

# 1. Activate the "Ultimate Performance" plan
# This forces the CPU to run at max frequency, avoiding micro-stutters in Battlefield.
powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

# 2. Disable Hibernation
# You are on a desktop/gaming laptop. You don't need to save RAM to disk.
# This recovers about 6GB to 16GB of SSD space.
powercfg /h off

# 3. Mouse Acceleration (The enemy of Aim)
# Windows defaults to "Enhance Pointer Precision". This destroys muscle memory.
# In the registry, we kill it
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Mouse" -Name "MouseSpeed" -Value "0"
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Mouse" -Name "MouseThreshold1" -Value "0"
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Mouse" -Name "MouseThreshold2" -Value "0"

# 4. Debloat the few things left
# Even LTSC has some leftovers.
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.Windows.SecHealthUI* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.Windows.Photos* | Remove-AppxPackage

Step 3: Drivers without the “Experience”

If you have an NVIDIA card, do not install GeForce Experience. It is spyware wrapped in a driver updater. It requires a login just to update your GPU drivers. Ridiculous.

Use NVCleanstall. It is a tool that allows you to install only the GPU driver and PhysX. You can strip out the Telemetry, the Shield Streaming service (if you don’t use it), and the advertising bloat.

Since I am doing this on a gaming laptop (an ASUS TUF), I refuse to install the proprietary garbage known as “Armoury Crate.” It installs 15 different services just to change the keyboard color. Instead, we use G-Helper. It is open-source, weighs less than 5MB, and does everything the official software does without the spying. However, if you try to run G-Helper (or almost any game/tool) on a fresh LTSC installation, it will crash instantly.

Why? Because LTSC is too clean.

The consumer versions of Windows come pre-loaded with a library of dependencies that software developers assume you have. LTSC does not. Before you can game, you must manually install the “digestive system” of Windows:

Visual C++ Redistributables (All-in-One): You need the x86 and x64 libraries from 2005 to 2022. Without these, G-Helper cannot talk to the hardware.
DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010): “But doesn’t Windows 10 have DX12?” Yes. But older games (and even some modern launchers) still make calls to DX9 libraries.

Download the Visual C++ Redistributable Runtimes All-in-One (from TechPowerUp or GitHub) and run the install_all.bat. Then, run the DirectX web installer.

Once these are installed, G-Helper opens. We can set the battery charge limit to 80% (to preserve lifespan), set the fans to “Silent” when browsing, and “Turbo” when gaming. We now have full control of the hardware without the “bloat” tax.

One last thing. For Destiny 2 and modern titles, ensure you enable HAGS (Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling) in the Windows Graphics settings. It moves memory management from the CPU to the GPU, reducing overhead.

Step 4: The Result

After this process, you will have a Windows installation that:

Uses less than 1.5GB of RAM on idle.
Has zero pop-ups asking you to try Office 365.
Does not index your files while you are trying to clutch a 1v3 on CSGO.

It becomes a glorious bootloader for Steam. You turn on the PC, Steam opens, you play, you shut down. It is still Windows. It is still a necessary evil. But at least now, it obeys you.

Step 5: The “Debloat Script” Trap

At this point, you might be tempted to go to GitHub, search for “Windows 10 Debloater,” and run the first PowerShell script you find with 10k stars.

Don’t do it.

Here is why using automated debloat scripts is a terrible idea for this project:

Redundancy: Those scripts are written for Windows 10 Home and Pro. They contain hundreds of lines to remove Cortana, OneDrive, and Candy Crush. We are on LTSC. We don’t have those things. Running a script to remove something that doesn’t exist is like trying to perform surgery on a dead man, best case, nothing happens, worst case, you damage the body.
The “Black Box” Problem: Unless you sit down and analyze 100% of the code (which can be thousands of lines), you don’t know what that script is doing. Many of them aggressively disable scheduled tasks or delete registry keys related to printing, networking, or user authentication.
Instability: I have seen scripts that “debloat” the system by ripping out the Identity Provider dependencies. Congratulations, now you can’t log in to the Xbox Network inside Halo Infinite.

We chose LTSC precisely because it comes debloated out of the factory. We don’t need a machete to clear a path that is already paved. Keep your installation clean by not running scripts you don’t fully understand.

Step 6: The Xbox Exception (Optional)

I mentioned earlier that we want a system free of the Microsoft Store. And for 99% of games, from Counter-Strike to Elden Ring, that is the absolute truth. You don’t need the Store, and you definitely don’t want it running in the background.

However, there is a specific category of games that will refuse to launch on our clean LTSC installation: First-Party Microsoft Titles.

If you try to launch Forza Horizon 5, Sea of Thieves, or Halo Infinite (even the Steam versions), the game might crash instantly or get stuck in an infinite login loop.

The Culprit: These games rely on a background service called the Xbox Identity Provider to bridge the gap between Steam and your Microsoft Account. Since we nuked the bloat, this bridge doesn’t exist.

If, and only if, you play these specific titles, you need to perform a surgical re-implantation of the Microsoft Store.

The “LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore” Script: Since LTSC doesn’t have the installer files, we rely on the open-source community. Go to GitHub and find the kkkgo/LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore repository. Download the release, unzip it, and run Add-Store.cmd as Administrator.
The Bare Minimum: Once the Store is installed, open it. Do not sign in to the Store itself (unless you own the game there). Search for and install only these two items:
- Xbox Identity Provider
- Gaming Services
The Xbox App (Optional): If you use Game Pass, you will also need the main Xbox app.

Once installed, launch your game. It should now successfully pop up the Microsoft Login window. Once you are logged in, close the Store, unpin it, and pretend it doesn’t exist. We are here to play Halo, not to browse paid wallpapers.

Is this process overkill? Absolutely.

Is it absurd that we have to download an Enterprise version of Windows intended for MRI machines just to play Call of Duty without advertising? Yes.

But this is the reality of PC gaming in 2025. We are stuck between the rock of Anti-Cheat compatibility and the hard place of Microsoft’s bloatware. By using Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC, we reclaim ownership of our hardware.

We have stripped the OS down to its bare essentials. It is no longer an “Operating System” in the traditional sense; it is a glorified, highly-optimized bootloader for your games. And honestly? That is the only way I can tolerate having Windows in my house.

See you in the next post.