Elias wasn't a hacker, not in the malicious sense. He was a "digital archaeologist," a preservationist dedicated to keeping old software alive. He ran a niche museum of computing history, and his current obsession was a pristine, untouched copy of an obscure build of Windows 10 LTSB (Long-Term Servicing Branch). He had the ISO, but he needed to strip it down—remove the telemetry, the bloatware, the Cortana assistant—to make it run on the museum's vintage 2015-era thin clients.