WinFS

WinFS is the new filesystem for the Microsoft Windows Longhorn operating system scheduled for release in 2006.

WinFS tries to bridge the worlds of traditional relational databases and file systems of unstructred documents with the concept of metadata over files. The metadata should provide more context and keyword information than current Windows applications.

For example, currently Windows allows a person to query by the date on which photos were taken. WinFS is being designed to allow a person to search with more specific information, such as who is in the picture.

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. These operating system recognizable schemas should boost the querying and searching capabilities of the operating system.