Introducing ReactOS 0.4.16

ReactOS has officially released version 0.4.16 after a year and a half of development. This update brings numerous improvements to the operating system, including a new graphical installer, a combined bootcd and livecd image, and enhanced video, audio, networking, and storage stack functionality.

The graphical installer and combined bootcd livecd image were developed by Hermès Bélusca-Maïto. Core developer Hervé Poussineau laid the groundwork for multi-monitor support, while Justin Miller improved video driver compatibility by addressing kernel memory limitations. AMD video driver issues with blank OpenGL windows were resolved by rewriting ExtEscape, inspired by a patch from James Tabor.

ReactOS now offers improved HD audio support, thanks to the work of Oleg Dubinskiy. He imported a new HD audio bus driver and fixed volume and balance sliders in Sound Properties and Audio Volume Mixer. The audio device enumeration code was also updated to support more sound cards, and binary compatibility with the Windows audio stack was improved.

A new ATA driver, developed by Dmitry Borisov, allows ReactOS to boot in more environments, including inside Hyper-V Generation 1. The FastFAT driver was also imported and enabled, fixing issues with repairing FAT partitions using chkdsk. Additionally, a disk cleanup utility was added to ReactOS 0.4.16, compatible with Windows disk cleanup extensions.

ReactOS now supports Workstation and Server installation types, and the Server Core installation type was added, disabling the graphical explorer shell. Overall, ReactOS 0.4.16 brings significant enhancements to stability, compatibility, and functionality.