ReactOS can now be installed on NTFS drives, a step toward beta

For a long time, anyone trying the open-source operating system ReactOS had to give it a FAT32 partition, an older format, to install it. That is no longer required: ReactOS can now be installed directly onto an NTFS drive partition, the file system Microsoft built for Windows.

NTFS has deep roots. It traces back through the Windows NT family, starting with Windows NT 3.1 in 1993, and the variant introduced with Windows XP in 2001 is still the standard on most Windows systems today. For ReactOS, whose stated goal is binary compatibility with Windows Server 2003, being stuck on FAT32 was a practical wall. Reproducing a Windows environment means running on the format Windows itself uses.

The new driver is not a finished piece of work. According to the project, it still "lacks caching (which causes inferior performance), journaling and security support," so installs will be slower and lack protections that Windows users take for granted. The ReactOS team also warned in its announcement on X that there are "potentially undiscovered bugs."

So who gains, and when? For now, the gain goes to developers and testers, who can exercise ReactOS on the same kind of partition Windows uses and find the bugs that remain. Ordinary users looking to leave Windows should wait. The milestone is, in the project's own framing, one step closer to beta, and no date for that beta is given in the announcement.