> Adopting GUID of "Microsoft BASIC Data" probably means that boot
> loaders will either show it as "Windows" or try to figure out by
> themselves which version of Windows this is... it could take them a
> while to discover that this is not really Windows, because you said 
> it was "Windows" when it is not really.  I would have probably
> agreed if the standard would have a defined "MSDOS" GUID, because
> really FreeDOS try to be almost identical to "MSDOS".

You seem to be misunderstanding what's going on here.  What's being indicated 
is not the Operating System (Windows or DOS or Linux or Mac or whatever), but 
the file system type that is contained in the partition.  For whatever reason 
somebody (I suppose Microsoft) decided that rather than specifically 
identifying the file system type (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, etc.) they 
would lump all the file systems MS had something to do with creating into one 
category called "Microsoft Basic Data".  To determine the actual file system 
being used, you need to look beyond what's in the GPT at look at the partition 
itself.  A program would appropriately identify such a partition as Microsoft 
Basic Data (or maybe just Microsoft), not as MS Windows or MS-DOS or FreeDOS or 
PC-DOS or DR-DOS or ...

E.g., Linux and Windows (and most modern OS's) can mount FAT partitions and 
will look at all partitions identified as "Microsoft Basic Data" and try to 
mount them (if and when appropriate).  If you come up with your own GUID(s) for 
FAT file systems, all the other OS's (including Windows) will need to be 
changed so that they recognize that the new GUID is really the same as the 
Microsoft Basic Data GUID.  They will most likely completely ignore it right 
now since they don't know what it is and won't bother trying to figure it out.  
If your goal is to "hide" the FAT partitions from other OS's (and even from DOS 
programs that understand GPT), you could create a new GUID.  If you want it to 
be compatible with other OS's, you need to use the Microsoft Basic Data GUID.


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