WinFS

In computing, WinFS is a new file system being developed by Microsoft for its Windows operating system. It was originally intended to form part of Windows Longhorn, but in August 2004, it was announced that in order to release Longhorn in 2006, it would contain WinFS in beta form at best, with a full version being released later as an add-on or update. Subsequent statements by Microsoft imply that WinFS will not be released until 2008 at the earliest. [1]

WinFS tries to bridge the worlds of traditional relational databases and file systems of unstructured documents with the concept of metadata over files. Rather than representing a file with a single name, WinFS aims to represent individual data objects - e.g. e-mails, address book entries - with indexed and searchable context and keyword information.

For example, traditional filesystems allow a user to search by the date on which a file was created - which might allow searching for when a photo was taken. However, with a WinFS system, each photo could include additional information, so that it could be searched by, for instance, who is in the picture; a set of folder-like views could then be created automatically which sorted photos by person.

The system is based on a combination of the next version of Microsoft SQL Server, codenamed Yukon, and an underlying NTFS filesystem, and will provide access to data through both traditional file-based APIs and new object-based approaches that take advantage of the new features.

The metadata will be described in schemas or an XML data format. These schemas will define most of the common objects like documents, music files, email messages. Third party vendors too can define their own schemas. Microsoft claims that these operating system recognizable schemas will boost the querying and searching capabilities of the operating system.

External links

• WinFS information from Microsoft's MSDN site.
• WinFS 101 - an official introductory article on the concept.