Microsoft cans WinFS

By Steve Malone

Posted on 26 Jun 2006 at 10:49

WinFS, the much anticipated and long delayed new SQL based filing system originally intended as a cornerstone of the new Windows Vista operating system is no longer a product-wide feature.

Instead, Microsoft says it is planning to scale back the scope of WinFS deployment to the next version of SQL Server, code-named 'Katmai' and 'Orcas' the version of Visual Studio intended as a development platform for Longhorn Server.

In a blog posting, Quentin Clark the product manager announced that 'we are not pursuing a separate delivery of WinFS, including the previously planned Beta 2 release'.

WinFS, originally touted as a whole new method of storage and file management based on relational database technologies was intended to free users from the files and folders hierarchy and provide an easily accessible pool of data. However, the complexity of WinFS meant that itwas pulled from the Vista feature set in 2004 as Microsoft struggled to hit its release date for the new operating system.

At the time it was promised that WinFS would follow the launch of Vista with beta versions around before then. Sure enough, Beta 1 of WinFS was released last August in the expectation that it would follow the release of Vista's new early 2007 release date. It now seems however, that Vista and WinFS have parted company.