The Hidden Gem of Computing: Windows 10 LTSC 1998 - The Secret OS that Revolutionized Gaming

by Dmitry Kirsanov 1. April 2022 18:38

When we think of classic operating systems, Windows 95 and 98 come to mind. However, few people know about the hidden gem that was secretly developed by Bill Gates himself - Windows 10 LTSC 1998. This elusive OS has remained under wraps for decades, but now its incredible story can finally be told. With its remarkable features and unparalleled gaming capabilities, Windows 10 LTSC 1998 has become the holy grail for tech enthusiasts and gamers alike.

The Secret Origin of Windows 10 LTSC 1998:

It all began in the late 1990s when Bill Gates, the visionary founder of Microsoft, was working on an ambitious project. He wanted to create an operating system that would revolutionize the world of computing and gaming. With the help of a select group of Microsoft's top engineers, Bill Gates personally oversaw the development of Windows 10 LTSC 1998.

The team behind this secret project were instructed to think outside the box and push the boundaries of technology. What they created was a revolutionary OS that was light years ahead of its time, so much so that it would be incomprehensible to the average user of that era.

Unparalleled Gaming Performance:

Windows 10 LTSC 1998 was designed with gaming in mind. Bill Gates, a visionary who understood the potential of gaming as a mainstream form of entertainment, ensured that the OS had features that would maximize the performance of games. As a result, this operating system provides an astounding 50 to 80% increase in frames per second (FPS) compared to contemporary systems of the time.

The secret to this performance boost lies in the polished code that Bill Gates personally fine-tuned. By eliminating unnecessary bloatware and optimizing the OS for gaming, Gates was able to create an operating system that ran like a well-oiled machine, delivering unparalleled performance even on hardware of the time.

The Treasured Rarity:

Despite its incredible capabilities, Windows 10 LTSC 1998 was never released to the public. It was deemed too advanced for the market at the time, and Microsoft feared that such a release would alienate their user base. As a result, Windows 10 LTSC 1998 was shelved, and only a handful of copies were ever produced.

Over time, rumors of this mythical operating system began to circulate within the tech community. Some claimed to have seen it in action, while others dismissed it as an urban legend. Those who were fortunate enough to obtain a copy of Windows 10 LTSC 1998, however, became part of an exclusive club, with their prized possession becoming the envy of gamers and tech enthusiasts alike.

Conclusion:

The story of Windows 10 LTSC 1998 serves as a testament to the genius of Bill Gates and the innovative spirit that has driven the tech industry for decades. While it may never be released to the public, its legacy lives on in the hearts of those lucky enough to experience its unrivaled performance. As the world of technology continues to evolve, one can only wonder what other hidden gems are waiting to be discovered.

HOSTS File Editor

by Dmitry Kirsanov 4. September 2019 10:57

HOSTS file is a text file in your Windows system that contains name resolution pairs to quickly resolve domain and LAN computer names, or ensure that resolution fails and host in question would become unreachable. We use it to speed up access to intranet hosts, block advertisement and telemetry websites, and in software development – to substitute real world hosts with local copies.

I have to edit HOSTS file often and on different computers. Supply IP addresses for local servers, block connection to Facebook, disable adverts in some apps, that kind of stuff. Well edited HOSTS file makes Windows work faster and helps avoiding problems with connectivity.

One problem, though – it’s over 60Kb large in my case, and adding / removing / temporarily disabling records - takes time. Not much, but more than I’d like to spend on that task. Therefore I felt the need for a command line editor – a single-command application, that would allow to perform the full range of operations on that file and make whole editing process a fraction of a second. And here it is. More...

Handling Temporary Files, Best Practice

by Dmitry Kirsanov 9. October 2016 05:59

Each day I am creating so many temporary files that I can’t really give you a count. Sometimes it’s thousands. Opening attachments from e-mails and instant messengers, saving images from internet for a single use, opening archives, deploying software and many other tasks – they all create temporary files that may stay in a hard drive for years.

By temporary files I don’t mean the files created by applications to temporarily store data. I mean the actual user files you don’t intend to use in the future.

Another type of temporary files is log files. Usually we have them on servers. Web server logs, mail server, your own application that creates a set of log files each day – usually you don’t need to store these files for more than a few months. Especially if these files are stored on virtual machines, like Azure or Amazon, where you are paying for each megabyte of storage.

There are two aspects in temporary files that may justify doing something about them:

1. They take space or they are produced in numbers that decrease the performance of file system. The file doesn’t have to take all the space of the drive – it’s enough to have thousands of files in one directory to make Windows freeze every time it’s trying to find and list these files. For some directories we would prefer to have a threshold of a particular time after which these files should vanish.

2. They may contain sensitive information that you wouldn’t want to leave behind. Of financial, medical, business, political or any other nature – when the file has expired, there is no need to keep it, but some files may require special care in form of secure erase. More...

ReactOS Rising?

by Dmitry Kirsanov 1. May 2012 18:03

ros_logo_08Have you ever heard about ReactOS? It’s an operating system which was in “alpha” state for the last 16 years (!) and is basically a free, open-source Windows clone. It looks just like Windows XP / 2003, but the code base is written from scratch. However, the software written for Windows should work just fine on ReactOS. That’s the goal, at least. For now, applications like WinAmp and uTorrent work stable on current release.

Just about now the founder of this project, Aleksey Bragin, sent an e-mail claiming he is fundraising to actually hire full time developers for his OS. Until now it was a hobby for everyone, but now he is about to make it real. Taking into account that his goal is quite modest 30 000 euro, I think he’ll make it in no time, so the only question that is left open – what’s next?

Either he is going to ship this OS (to potentially free millions of PCs from the inevitable upgrade of Windows XP), or he wants to rise the price of the project to sell it. In a latter case, the question is who would buy it – would it be some social network, financially capable to have a pet operating system, or would it be some ill management addict company, which is buying new projects and technologies to substitute previously acquired and dying ones?

More questions than answers, but anyway, I wish these guys a well deserved success.

Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) in action

by Dmitry Kirsanov 20. April 2012 06:41

A few days ago Microsoft released beta of their new technology called User Experience Virtualization, or UE-V. The name implies that it has something to do with virtualization, but it’s just a buzzword. What UE-V does – it synchronizes user settings across workstations, in real time.

Imagine, that you have to log into multiple workstations, and what you want to have is the same settings of all applications you are using in your work. For example, spelling options in Microsoft Office, the layout of buttons, menus and colors – all the little pains that accumulates into the strong headache of roaming for some.

UE-V vs. roaming profiles

The roaming profile could be the answer, but for most of us it’s not. Some of us don’t even have the Active Directory profiles, but still desire the same user experience throughout the environment (translation to human language: every desktop of yours looks and behaves the same).

The difference with roaming is also in fact that in UE-V you only synchronize what you want to, not everything. So it works faster and has less space for errors.

More...

7 Rules of Building High Availability Kiosk Applications

by Dmitry Kirsanov 17. February 2012 11:19

RigasSatiksmeWhat could be easier, for a software developer, than to write a kiosk application? You set the rules, you have only 4 buttons to deal with and users just can’t do anything bad or unexpected. What could be wrong with such solution?

The absence of proactive thinking.

More...

And one ring to rule them all

by Dmitry Kirsanov 27. November 2011 05:08

As discussed previously, there is a noticeable trend in casual IT these days – cut spending on IT infrastructure management as much as possible. Companies are using all chances to eliminate the “human factor” from systems administration, and while it’s scary for incompetent administrators, it adds to the innovation factor of modern IT management offering.

So it’s quite controversial trend. But trends of that kind are very natural for innovation. Let’s see what it’s all about. More...

Introduction to scripting for systems administrators - Windows Scripting Host, part 1

by Dmitry Kirsanov 20. November 2011 00:42

Some time ago, which seems like yesterday, I made an attempt to introduce Windows Systems Administrators to PowerShell. Even before doing that, I realized that professional Windows scripting is still impossible without using of VBScript, or Visual Basic Scripting Edition. And teaching someone PowerShell without at least showing the main concepts of VBScript is not right.

While I am trying to show the work with VBScript from more like practical point of view, I am also not trying to substitute the training course on the subject, so if VBScript or Windows Scripting in general is about to become your main responsibility at your company, please get yourself a reference on it, preferably something as good as VBScript bible.

However, we’ll get closer to VBScript during later sessions and cover even so exotic topics as using VBScript custom actions in Microsoft Installer packages (MSI).

Introduction to scripting for systems administrators - Windows Scripting Host, part 1

Windows 8 Classic Start Menu

by Dmitry Kirsanov 14. November 2011 13:35

This one will be quite short.

Windows 8 comes with new tablet-oriented Metro graphical user interface. However, just like in previous versions of Windows, there is the possibility to revert to alternative start menu. In Vista and Windows 7 we had ability to switch back to Windows XP style of menu, now we have ability to switch back to Windows 7 style.

In order to do that, you need to switch one key in Windows registry, which is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RPEnabled . This video shows how to do that:

Windows 8 Classic Start Menu

Previously we’ve discussed how to run Windows 8 on VMWare and what are the most interesting changes in Windows GUI for end-users.

Deploying Windows 7 by Using Windows AIK

by Dmitry Kirsanov 9. November 2011 11:20

Another aspect of corporate systems administration is ability to deploy anything and everything at once without even leaving your chair. In Windows world, we had that ability from Windows 2000 and it evolves with every new version of operating system.

One of the key tools to install the operating system itself is Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK). Windows is using so called “answer file” to not ask you for things with known answers. And it’s not only serial number, user and computer name, but also partitions, drivers and other things that could take hours to install and configure otherwise.

As a potential scenario of deployment, imagine that you’ve just received a 100 new computers from hardware vendor. 100 brand new machines with no operating system installed, as you will use Windows 7 corporate – version which you can’t buy at local store. Your task is to install it as soon as possible – it’s Friday evening and you don’t want to waste your weekend on it.

So you prepare the image of one machine and deploy it on all other machines using local network. Very simple thing to do when you know what you are doing.

The following walkthrough lab is from the Microsoft Official Curriculum 6294A: Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments. It shows you how to create bootable media with image of your reference workstation and deploy it on other machines. Enjoy!

Deploying Windows 7 by Using Windows AIK