What is this for? What itch were you attempting to scratch which lead you to create this? How could it be useful in a project? / What sorts of projects would it it lend itself to?
The practical one is that I wanted to be able to store disk data in a cloud storage bucket (i.e. "format" a bucket with NTFS and use it as a disk). For various reasons I did not want to build this as a WinFsp or FUSE file system.
The theoretical one is that I am exploring the possibility of writing a new OS where all/most IO/services/etc. could be implemented either in kernel mode or user mode. Not bolt it onto an existing OS like I have done with WinFsp and WinSpd, but build the OS like this from the ground up.
To finish here are some use cases for WinSpd as food for thought:
- Mounting virtual disks in a format other than VHD.
- Mounting a cloud storage bucket as a disk.
- Serving a read-only disk from an internet location for use by multiple users.
- Tracking disk I/O for backup, snapshotting or other purposes.