ReactOS 0.4.16 adds a new graphical installer and updated drivers

ReactOS 0.4.16 arrives after roughly 18 months of development, introducing a new graphical installer and combining the previous boot and live images into a single download for testing or installing the operating system. Graphics support has also been improved with VGA fallback when display drivers fail, a memory layout change that fixes Nvidia driver slowdowns, and AMD fixes for blank OpenGL windows and other win32k.sys issues.

Audio support now uses the sklhdaudbus High Definition Audio bus driver, improving compatibility with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 drivers. ReactOS has also imported Microsoft's open source Kernel Mode Driver Framework, which supports the new audio driver and can be used for other framework dependent drivers. Volume and balance settings now persist after reboots, while storage improvements include a new ATA driver designed to reduce slow boots and INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE crashes, including better support for Hyper V Generation 1. FAT repair routines have also been restored, and a new Disk Cleanup compatible utility supports third party extensions.

Networking updates include DC21X4 support for Internet access in Virtual PC 2007 and Hyper V Generation 1, along with asynchronous connections that improve performance and application compatibility. ReactOS 0.4.16 also introduces a Server Core installation option that disables Explorer while retaining the Win32 subsystem, continues synchronization with Wine 10.0, and includes WineVDM in release images for improved compatibility with legacy 16 bit Windows applications.