Windows storage

ForkPress uses native ReFS block cloning on Windows. The supported user path is the Windows installer, which prepares a clone-capable Dev Drive and creates a starter site there.

Installer flow

For a fresh Windows machine:

1. Download ForkPressSetup.exe.
2. Open it.
3. Accept the Windows permission prompt.
4. Reboot only if Windows asks.
5. Open Start ForkPress Site from the desktop or Start Menu.

The installer:

• installs protected program files under %ProgramFiles%\ForkPress;
• creates a ReFS Dev Drive VHDX at %ProgramData%\ForkPress\Storage\forkpress-dev-drive.vhdx;
• mounts it at %USERPROFILE%\ForkPressDevDrive;
• adds forkpress.exe to the user PATH;
• creates %USERPROFILE%\ForkPressDevDrive\Sites\My ForkPress Site;
• runs forkpress init in that site folder;
• creates Start ForkPress Site, ForkPress Shell, and ForkPress Dev Drive shortcuts.

It does not require WSL, Docker, FUSE, WinFsp, or manual Windows feature setup.

ReFS block cloning

When a project lives on a ReFS Dev Drive, ForkPress uses FSCTL_DUPLICATE_EXTENTS_TO_FILE to clone file extents. Writes to a cloned branch file do not mutate the source branch because ReFS allocates new clusters for changed data.

main\wp-load.php       shares ReFS clusters with
marketing\wp-load.php  until one side writes

Boundaries

• The current Windows model is materialized COW, not lazy namespace COW.
• Branch creation still creates a full directory namespace.
• The installer path is designed for Windows 11 systems with Dev Drive support.
• The current Windows package ships an x64 binary. Windows 11 on Arm64 runs it through Windows x64 emulation.