ReactOS developers proudly present version 0.3.13

In this version, work was continued, the results of which were first presented in 0.3.12, ranging from improvements in the mechanisms of working with memory, and ending with improvements in sound and screen control. In addition, between versions 0.3.12 and 0.3.13, static code analysis was carried out using Coverity , which helped us to clear potential security holes and, in general, improve system stability due to more accurate memory handling.

One of the main changes related to memory management is the introduction of a new heap manager based on an architecture similar to Windows 2003 / Vista, which significantly improved the compatibility of ReactOS by supporting advanced memory allocation operations, and also ensured correct management of the heap in kernel mode, which is used in win32k. In addition, for many memory operations, the performance has also significantly increased, even despite the lack of special optimizations in the new heap manager. In addition, at the end of the release preparation cycle, a debugging heap manager was added to the project, which also led to a series of fixes for memory usage in ReactOS, both in the system itself and in standard applications. These changes should greatly improve the overall stability of the system, making it one more step closer to everyday use.

Other changes include merging yarotows with the main branch of development. As a result, the procedure for loading video drivers has been improved, and dynamic screen switching has been provided, which ultimately also improved the usability of ReactOS.

In the process of preparing this release, 282 bugs were fixed, including 50 regressions. The oldest regression is 4811 (synchronization comctl32.dll with wine ruined the toolbar in AbiWord). The oldest bug is 1567 (the task manager continues to show closed applications), it is almost five years old. Since the release of the previous version, 0.3.12, 382 new bugs have been added to the bugtracker.
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The previous issues, 0.3.11 and 0.3.12, were downloaded 238 and 526 thousand times respectively, which in total gives an amazing number of 764,000 downloads. A significant increase in their number looks promising.

Here are some of the most important changes:

• Implemented switching modes of the screen "on the fly", as well as improved compatibility with video drivers.
• Fixed several bugs in graphics.
• The heap manager has been completely rewritten, debugging tools have been added to “catch” operations that go beyond the permitted limits.
• Improved line management in the audio mixer. Now the sounds in the applications are no longer distorted due to the superimposition of audio lines.
• A huge work on correcting errors in the user subsystem (user subsystem), including improved support for mouse input, messages and timers.
• Fixed various issues in Firefox and Thunderbird applications.
• Fixed a group of errors in the OS installer.
• Improved application support, now working in ReactOS: Stellarium 0.10.2, LHelp, winpcap, FlashPlayer 10.1 and Mono 2.8, OllyDbg 1.10, Xenon 2000, VLC 1.1.5, Foobar 2000, Skype 4.0.0.
• More and more SATA devices are supported.
• Fixed many test cases.
• Many improvements to the memory manager, correcting errors, and bringing it closer to the NT memory manager.

You can also view a more detailed list of changes .

( Link to download the new version. Approx. Transl. )