ReactOS is an open source operating system designed to be compatible with Windows applications. It’s been in development for more than two decades and is still very much work-in-progress software, but the first major release in more than a year brings a handful of new features and support for additional hardware.

ReactOS 0.4.14 is now available for download and, among other things, it adds new features to the right-click context menu, the ability to run on NEC PC-9800 computers, networking improvements, and bug fixes and improvements to the ReactOS kernel and bootloader.

@reactos

The most noticeable user-facing changes in the latest build are the addit9ion of “Open File Location” and “Open Command prompt here” options for the right-click context menu for the ReactOS Shell. There’s also a “Send To” feature that can send a file to predefined locations like “My Documents” or “Desktop.”

Other changes include the removable of obsolete fonts, which helped reduce the size of the operating system as well as memory usage.

Developers are also working to bring ReactOS to the original Xbox console, which would allow you to turn Microsoft’s first-gen game console into a Windows-compatible PC. But that project is still in its early stages and

You can also find a complete (and long) list of both visible and under-the-hood changes in the ReactOS 0.4.14 Changelog.

While ReactOS 0.4.14 is the latest numbered release with an emphasis on stability, there are also nightly builds of the operating system that have newer, buggier, and more experimental features.

 

 

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9 replies on “ReactOS 0.4.14 brings new features, more hardware support to the open source Windows clone”

  1. I flashed ReactOS onto a USB stick and booted three different x64 computers off it (two older laptops, one with an Intel CPU and one with an AMD, and a Ryzen 3400G system I built a couple of years ago) with the same result in each case: the Blue Screen of Death. Considering that this release is supposed to fix bugs and that the next is supposed to showcase new features, I’m thinking that I can safely ignore it for another year at least.

    1. No, Wrong. Completely. You should avoid it for the next five years if you would ever for a moment think it would work with your hardware at this point in development. It is an ALPHA grade o/s and you should expect it to work on NOTHING at all. When it reaches beta then you should re-test. Until then I can strongly suggest you read the ReactOS WIKI FAQ and familiarise yourself with what Alpha means in the context of an o/s.

      1. No, Wrong. Completely. You should take a deep breath or two and re-read what I just wrote. I simply observed that I couldn’t boot React on three different machines. I didn’t expect to be able to run Windows software smoothly (or at all); I merely hoped that something like the Windows desktop might appear — you seem to think it was terribly wrongheaded of me to do so. To what end are the developers making it available if it doesn’t work at all? I presume that some machines don’t display the Blue Screen of Death, at least.

        1. I read what you wrote. The mere fact that you mentioned you could not get them to work shows that you over estimated what ReactOS should be capable of at this stage. You don’t understand Alpha or you wouldn’t have been making the point in the first place. If you get up and start shouting please make sure you know what you are talking about beforehand, otherwise it is embarrassing for you. Go and read the ReactOS WIKI FAQ from top to bottom and get an idea of what you can expect from ReactOS at this early stage in its development. You should expect all machines to fail and be delighted if any at all operate. If they do boot they will fail shortly after that – be assured. Do not attempt to USE ReactOS on any machine with your data as it will be lost. That is the base line from which you should be operating.

    1. My car is faster than Haiku. But there is no logical comparison just as yours is a totally illogical comparison.

      1. no you car is no faster than haiku, haiku is faster than linux, findows , freebsd etc. and You car system too

  3. I am watching the development of ReactOS. Since it uses less resources than Windows, I think it would be great for older computers and small computers.

    It seemed like there was a long time between 0-4-13 and 0-4-14. I wondered if it would ever come.

    1. A HUGE amount of work is being done in ReactOS at the moment but the new code brings with it an equally large number of new bugs and regressions. The Dev. team have a rule that the number of regressions need to be below a certain number before they can implement a new release. Because of this a lot of new functionality never actually made it into 0.4.14. In fact, the daily builds have a lot more functionality than 0.4.14 and that means the release of 0.4.15 will be bigger and significantly better.

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