ReactOS, the open-source project aiming for binary compatibility with Windows Server 2003, has reached a significant milestone: it can now be installed directly onto an NTFS partition. Previously, users had to keep a FAT32 partition for installation, which was a practical barrier given that NTFS has been the standard Windows filesystem since Windows XP. The change brings the project one step closer to its long-awaited beta release.
However, the new driver is not yet production-ready. The ReactOS team warned that it lacks caching, which causes inferior performance, and also lacks journaling and security support. They also noted that there are potentially undiscovered bugs, so even experienced OS tinkerers should proceed with caution.
The development gap this closes is nearly a decade old: read-only NTFS support arrived in 2016, and boot support followed in 2022, but the OS could not be installed onto an NTFS drive until now. ReactOS remains a volunteer-driven project that has stayed in alpha for decades, underscoring the difficulty of reimplementing an operating system from scratch. While it may never become a mainstream Windows alternative, this step means it can at least live on the same filesystem as the real thing.