What is WinFsp?
WinFsp (Windows File System Proxy) is an open-source software component for Windows that provides user-space file systems. It allows developers to easily create custom file systems without having to write kernel code.
Some key features of WinFsp include:
- Provides ability to create FUSE-compatible file systems on Windows
- Implements a user-mode file system proxy to facilitate development
- Offers high-performance user-space file systems that rival kernel file systems
- Has API compatible with standard Windows file I/O
- Supports memory-mapped files for fast access
- Compatible with all Windows versions from Windows 7 onwards
WinFsp makes it much simpler to develop custom file systems for Windows that can meet specialized storage needs or access non-traditional data stores. It handles most of the hard parts of file system development like caching, asynchronous I/O, and memory management. Developers can focus on the core logic of their file system.
Some typical use cases for WinFsp-based file systems include cloud storage gateways, database file systems, encrypted file systems, transactional file systems, and more. Overall, it provides a flexible way to extend file system functionality in Windows without kernel development.