56

(FUSE). Preferably without admin rights. An example would be sshfs, maybe via MSYS?

phuclv
  • 30,396
  • 15
  • 136
  • 260
Tobias Kienzler
  • 4,629

8 Answers8

24

As far as I understand, Windows doesn't ship with anything that would let you define your own filesystem without adding some code to the kernel (i.e., a driver). So you would need admin rights.

In 2010 The FUSE FAQ mention a few potential alternatives, but they all looked like vaporware except for Dokan. Dokan has been abandoned but some forks live on: Dokanx, Dokany, and more as well as at least two .NET bindings. Dokany has an SSHFS component.

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
  • 72,151
23

There is a FUSE compatibility layer for the Windows File System Proxy (winfsp).

This project seems to be live (as of 2019) - although it looks to be almost entirely a 1-developer show.

Code is hosted on github under GPLv3 - "If you find the constraints of the GPLv3 too onerous, a commercial license is also available."

Someone in my office has got winfsp running, but not using the FUSE compatibility layer.

Peter
  • 901
12

While not ideal, a way you could achieve "FUSE for Windows" could be by running a small Linux installation in a VM, with just FUSE and Samba installed, where Samba then exposes the mounted FUSE folders as shares.

Allanrbo
  • 316
11

Windows Projected File System (ProjFS) allows to create user-mode apps to back virtual file systems. It was introduced in Windows 10 1809. This feature needs to be enabled in Windows Features dialog. This technology is used by GVFS.

czerny
  • 664
8

There is something called Dokan, but it does not work too well; it supports SSHFS.

Liryna
  • 41
  • 5
mbq
  • 767
6

When MS introduced GVFS they created a new filter driver that's more or less FUSE-alike

GVFS relies on a new Windows filter driver (the moral equivalent of the FUSE driver in Linux) and we’ve worked with the Windows team to make an early drop of that available so you can try GVFS.

Scaling Git (and some back story)

See also

Community
  • 1
phuclv
  • 30,396
  • 15
  • 136
  • 260
2

I've seen links to this Windows library Callback File System that seems to be a commercial port of FUSE. I haven't tried it though. And it seems to be $2,500+ for commercial usage.

Matthew Lock
  • 4,757
1

Windows doesn't include support for userspace filesystems by default so you would need admin rights to install a Windows equivalent of FUSE like Dokan (such a driver needs to hook into the kernel after all).

JanC
  • 1,373