Dokany is a handy utility application developed by Dokan-dev for desktop use. It is the fork of the Dokan legacy project as this is no longer maintained, and the API compatibility of both projects got broke since version 0.8.0. This revamped tool now includes bug fixes, clean change history, and up-to-date design to build with the latest tools. 

What are the uses of the Dokan library?

Dokan is specifically used for writing to a virtual file system without Windows Kernel knowledge necessary. With this, you’ll be able to mount a virtual hard drive that can contain anything you want to show and can be viewed and managed as normal in Windows. It is a great alternative to another professionally developed tool called the CBFS Connect library. It can use memory like a ramdisk or even show you your remote data like FTP, SSH, Samba, and databases as local storage that is possible to be listed, read, written, and deleted.

Dokan contains both LGPL and MIT licensed programs, which include the user-mode, network and fuse libraries, driver, installer, control program, and samples. It works with various Windows versions from Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and later. At the same time, it performs with various platforms such as x86, x64, ARM, and ARM64. Dokany, though with more improved features and fixed issues, it still functions the same as its predecessor. 

If a file operation request was done from the user programs, it will be sent directly to the Windows input and output subsystem. By default, it works in the kernel, which will be forwarded to the file system driver created through this tool. When you employ the functions provided by the utility app, it will enable you to register additional callback operations to the said driver. In summary, the driver enforces the callback routines to respond to the requests sent in this manner and sends them back to the user program.

Effective file system application

With the strengthened features and performance Dokany manifests, it offers a more optimized and convenient usage for users. If you are looking for great software that can mount a virtual hard drive for you then, you can consider this one. It definitely does a stellar job as a filesystem driver.