Linux File Systems for Windows: Use EXT4 / XFS / Btrfs On Windows

For those bound to using Microsoft Windows but needing to access EXT4/Btrfs/XFS partitions, the commercial Linux File Systems for Windows eases the headache of using Windows.

Hot off their recent release of bringing an Apple APFS driver to Linux, German-based Paragon Software has now released Linux File Systems for Windows.

Paragon has long offered Linux file-system support to Windows while now they have bundled up ExtFS, Btrfs, and XFS file-system support together. ExtFS is what they are using to refer to EXT2 / EXT3 / EXT4. Paragon's Windows driver allows read/modify/copy/delete capabilities for EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 from Windows. But for the Btrfs and XFS file-system support, it's read-only access from Windows.

The company has made their Linux file-system support compliant with Secure Boot for those in a locked-down Windows environment. This Linux File Systems for Windows supports Windows 7/8/10 and Windows Server 2008/2012/2016.

More details can be found via Paragon-Software.com. The company offers a 10-day trial while after that the cost of this commercial-grade Linux file-system support is $19.95 USD.

For those wanting something free/open-source, there are community projects like the WinBtrfs initiative that offers both read/write support for Btrfs under Windows, along with other features like RAID support, etc. On the EXT4 front are also projects like Ext2Read, albeit without commercial support.