Microsoft Highlights WinFS

As expected, a trio of technologies took the stage at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference Monday, including the long-promised WinFS.

This foundation technology promises to unify storage of all data types--relational, nonrelational and multimedia, among others. "We are bringing database technology over the file system. The XML revolution and user interface [advances] are capable of bringing it all together," Microsoft Group Vice President Jim Allchin said during his Monday morning keynote at the conference in Los Angeles.

WinFS, which Microsoft has talked about for some time, will incorporate a single built-in search technology that will let users find all information related to their topic of choice, regardless of where it resides, said Hillel Cooperman, product unit manager for the Windows user experience.

Cooperman demonstrated a search of his own on stage, finding some 11,000 items pertaining to Longhorn, Microsoft's next-generation operating system, which is expected to be released in 2006. He then filtered the search results down to find the 30 most relevant items.

The file system will boast self-organizing capabilities to group items by author or other criteria. In practical terms, that means users will be able to create easily understandable views of the items of interest, stacking them by author, for example.

"Because the views are dynamically built, one item can show up in more than one folder," Cooperman noted.

The WinFS pitch was presented during demonstrations of the nascent Longhorn operating system, its Avalon presentation capabilities and Indigo communication capabilities.