Microsoft Refreshes WinFS Beta 1

Now that Visual Studio 2005 is out the door and the .NET Framework 2.0 has been released, Microsoft has issued an updated build of WinFS Beta 1 to MSDN subscribers. WinFS is Microsoft's new SQL-based file system technology that is slated for release as an add-on shortly after Windows Vista.

The idea of WinFS is to create a "sea of data" that abolishes the need for the standard file and folder hierarchy. For example, no longer would documents need to be stored in My Documents or images in My Pictures; instead, Windows would simply display the files associated with a particular request on demand.