A layman's guide - Getting an ISO to test

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Index to the layman's guides


This should not be needed, but this is a layman's guide, so I will describe where to get your ReactOS ISO from.


The release build ISOs have lots of bugs squashed (fixed) and are the most stable at the point of release. They come out about every 3 months, but soon become outdated for testing purposes. If all you want to do, is to see how ReactOS looks and performs, then go for one of these.

The trunk build ISOs are the very latest versions and are created every time code is committed to the source tree. These are the ones to go for, if you want to test ReactOS and give feedback for the developers to be able to fix bugs.

Release ISO

On the front page at https://www.reactos.org/ on the right hand side of the navigation banner, you will find the download link, or there is a large green Download ReactOS x.x.x button further down the page. Click on either the link or the button and it will take you to the Download page, where you have a choice of down loading the release bootcd or a livecd.

If you click on either the Download Boot CD button or the download LiveCD link, a drop down overlay window will appear, asking you to make a donation. You can either make a donation or scroll down and find the link text No, thanks. Let's proceed with the download! and click on it, you will then be taken to Sourceforge for the down load.

Note: If the latest release ISOs, are more then a week old, it is better not use them for testing, because they very quickly become out of date, due to the continual development of ReactOS.

Latest build ISO

From the front page, look for the heading Development (which is on the left side of the page) and click the link ReactOS Builds which is just underneath or if you are on the download page, scroll down the page and click on the Get nightly builds button. Which ever one you use, you will be taken to the get builds page.

Get Builds page explained:

Revision - The input box shows the number of the last created ISO. The left and right arrows decrease or increase the number. You can also type a number into the box and press Enter on your keyboard or press the Search button. This is useful when you want to find a ISO from the past. Browse all created Builds button with take you away from this page to https://iso.reactos.org/, where there are folders for bootcd and livecd ISOs. Bootcd ISOs go back to Mid Jan 2008, newest at the bottom and the oldest at the top. Livecd ISOs currently only go back to April 2017 (this may alter each year).

ISO image Types - The check boxes here are only useful when you are searching for a particular build from the past. You can uncheck the types you do not want. The Search button updates the list of files.

Debug Boot CDs

64 bit OS

  • reactos-bootcd-0.4.14-dev-881-gf32e1ac-x64-msvc-win-dbg.7z

32 bit OS

  • reactos-bootcd-0.4.7-dev-575-g48b2714-x86-gcc-lin-dbg.7z
  • reactos-bootcd-0.4.7-dev-575-g48b2714-x86-msvc-win-dbg.7z

Debug Live CDs

64 bit OS

  • reactos-livecd-0.4.14-dev-881-gf32e1ac-x64-msvc-win-dbg.7z

32 bit OS

  • reactos-livecd-0.4.7-dev-575-g48b2714-x86-gcc-lin-dbg.7z
  • reactos-livecd-0.4.7-dev-575-g48b2714-x86-msvc-win-dbg.7z

Release Boot CDs

32 bit OS

  • reactos-bootcd-0.4.7-dev-575-g48b2714-x86-gcc-lin-rel.7z

Release Live CDs

32 bit OS

  • reactos-livecd-0.4.7-dev-575-g48b2714-x86-gcc-lin-rel.7z

Size and Date, are self explanatory.


Note: On the website there are several possibly confusing words, such as Trunk Builds, Daily Builds, Nightly Builds, CDs and on a link button Latest Build!, these all refer to the 7zipped ISO files that can be down-loaded from the getbuilds page.



Index to the layman's guides