ReactOS details its new graphical installer

The ReactOS project is working on a new graphical installer to replace the older, text-mode one. In the first blog post about this effort, from December 2023, developer hbelusca details their work on setupapi, the module that enables “reading and processing INF files, moving/copying files from an installation source media to a target, supporting also extraction from compressed.CAB cabinet files”, as well as device installation functions.

The second post dives into partitioning during installation, which involves a lot of very delicate work, from partitioning to installing the bootloader, and from copying files to modifying the registry. On top of that, this needs a GUI, and preferably one that’s better and more versatile than the well-known blue text-mode setup we all know from old versions of Windows. The new GUI presents more options, allows for bootloader settings, and, of course, partitioning in a non-destructive way before committing. In addition, while the blue text-mode setup can only go forward, the new GUI is bidirectional.

The third and final post dives into testing all this work and fixing bugs. The post goes into great detail describing a number of bugs and their fixes, and is well worth a read, too.