Microsoft abandons WinFS file system

Microsoft has revealed it will not now release the much-anticipated WinFS relational file system as an add-on for Windows Vista. Some of the technology will instead find its way into future releases of SQL Server and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), an API for accessing data sources.

The news was broken in a blog posting by Quentin Clark, director of program management for WinFS, who said many of the storage innovations Microsoft was working on had matured to the point where they could be included in the firm’s broader database product line-up. “These changes do mean that we are not pursuing a separate delivery of WinFS, including the previously planned Beta 2 release,” Clark wrote.

WinFS was to have been one of the major features of Vista. It was an ambitious project to replace the disk filing system with a database-like structure that would let users search for data across all applications.

Microsoft dropped WinFS from Vista in 2004 as part of a shake-out to ensure the next-generation Windows client could be delivered this year. Until last week, however, it intended to deliver WinFS as a future add-in for Vista.

“It's disappointing they’ve abandoned WinFS, but bits of it will turn up elsewhere,” said David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum.

WinFS would have helped address the growing problem of desktop applications and the way they manage information, according to Bradshaw.

Sharepoint Server in the coming Office 2007 System may fill some of the gaps, but its capabilities are “pretty light” compared to those promised for WinFS, he said.