The ReactOS team released ReactOS version 0.4.13. This version brings improvements to the USB stack, further development of the Xbox port startup process, Explorer File Search to the Shell module, and many other changes.
Some highlights of updates worth noting are as follows:
USB improvements
Vadim Galyant and Victor Perevertkin introduced a new USB stack, which provides many fixes and improvements in various areas to improve overall USB support. Although there is still a long way to go to implement an advanced and fully functional USB stack in ReactOS, today's new modules already support HID and storage devices.
Explorer File Search Bring-Up
The Graphical shell (aka Explorer) is a vital component that allows users to interact with the system. However, the shell itself lacks many things, which greatly limit the user's overall ability to interact with the system in a simple and flexible manner. And through the work completed during Google Summer of Code 2019, the Shell has now implemented a new feature-file search. This feature will help users find the exact location of the file without having to manually search for content or rely on third-party programs. The following screenshot demonstrates the actual search function:
Xbox ReactOS port improvements
Previously, ReactOS had an Xbox architecture port dedicated to booting ReactOS onto the first generation of Xbox console hardware. But then, over time, the ReactOS code has undergone a series of major changes, and the port became unmaintainable, and developers are also focusing on other issues and basically ignoring the port.
Now, the Xbox ReactOS port has been improved. Moreover, as in the case of porting code to a new system, this work also helped ReactOS more broadly by exposing some errors in certain basic modules of the system.
The following screenshot shows ReactOS running in the Xbox emulator XQEMU:
FreeLoader FAT boot acceleration
In past releases, starting ReactOS on a system partitioned with the FAT file system may be cumbersome because users have to wait for a while before starting ReactOS. In order for ReactOS to start, FreeLoader (ReactOS bootloader) must do a lot of things, but it operates in an unoptimized way.
In this release, Victor Perevertkin has done a great job optimizing the FreeLoader's FAT driver. When using this file system for USB-RAM boot, the boot speed is significantly improved.
Accessibility
In the accessibility field of ReactOS, a new software, Accessibility Utility Manager, has been introduced, which can manage the accessibility applications of ReactOS. The following screenshot shows the running program:
Similarly, the on-screen keyboard has been improved in theme support, and some additional functions and minor bug fixes have been added to the magnifying glass.
Font management
ReactOS font support has become closer to Windows. By merging two large request requests, system font management is now done through the registry instead of temporarily. This brings better compatibility and stability to ReactOS.
Other improvements
In addition to the highlights highlighted in this release, the entire ReactOS-components (such as DLLs, applications, and other modules) have also been improved.
At the same time, in addition to the above improvements to accessibility, this version also fixes some common dialog boxes. Even if the user does not perform any operation, the "Apply" button will be enabled unconditionally. In addition, it also solves the problem about disk space, that is, the recycle bin may occupy more disk space than available disk space.
The construction of 64-bit ReactOS is getting better and better, and now ReactOS can be fully started and work in an x64 environment.
For more information, please see: https://reactos.org/project-news/reactos-0413-released/
Download address: https://reactos.org/download/
ReactOS is an open source operating system based on the principles of Windows NT architecture design. All code has been rewritten, ReactOS is not based on Linux, and it does not contain any UNIX architecture.
The main goal of the ReactOS project is to provide an operating system that is binary compatible with the Windows environment. It allows your Windows applications and drivers to run as if they were on Windows. In addition, due to the appearance characteristics of the Windows operating system, users who are already familiar with the Windows user interface will be familiar with ReactOS. The ultimate goal of ReactOS is to enable you to replace Windows with ReactOS without feeling the end user experience changing