Which operating system primarily uses NTFS?

The operating system that primarily uses NTFS (New Technology File System) is Windows. NTFS is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft, designed to provide improved performance, reliability, and advanced features compared to its predecessor, FAT (File Allocation Table).

NTFS supports large file sizes, file permissions for security, a built-in journaling feature to help prevent data corruption, and various other advanced functionalities such as disk quotas and encryption. Over numerous iterations, Microsoft has refined NTFS, making it the default file system for modern versions of Windows, including Windows 10 and Windows 11.

While macOS utilizes its own file systems like HFS+ and APFS, and Linux commonly uses file systems such as ext4, both are not designed to work with NTFS natively, although they can read and write NTFS with the help of additional software. Unix systems also utilize different file systems, such as UFS or ZFS, rather than NTFS. Therefore, it is clear that NTFS is closely associated with Windows.