TECHNOLOGY · FOCUS
ReactOS enables installation on NTFS, with significant limitations
ReactOS can now be installed directly on an NTFS partition, Ars Technica reports. This advance removes a constraint tied to FAT32, but the new driver still lacks essential features. It is therefore insufficient to establish the system's maturity.
Legal disclosure: this content was produced by an artificial intelligence system. Editorial transparency
ReactOS has reached a milestone in its open-source reimplementation of the Windows environment: the system can now be installed directly on an NTFS partition, according to Ars Technica, citing Phoronix. Installations previously required a FAT32 partition. This constraint was a practical obstacle for a project aiming for binary compatibility with Windows Server 2003.
The advance builds on work already underway. ReactOS had offered read-only NTFS access since 2016, and its FreeLoader bootloader gained support for booting from this file system in 2022. However, these capabilities did not allow the operating system to be installed directly on it.
The new driver remains incomplete. According to the project's warnings reported by Ars Technica, it still lacks caching, which degrades its performance, as well as journaling and security support. The team also flags the possibility of as-yet-unknown bugs. These limitations must be considered when assessing the announcement: the ability to install the system does not demonstrate sufficient reliability for everyday use.
The project remains in the alpha phase and relies mainly on volunteers. Installation on NTFS brings ReactOS closer to its compatibility goal, but does not in itself mark a move to beta. Assessing its progress will require distinguishing the addition of this feature from the robustness of the driver and the maturity of the system as a whole.