Paul Thurrott has assembled a very comprehensive FAQ about Windows Vista. In one of the Q&A's he reveals that Microsoft now plans to release WinFS, the new SQL database underlying the file system that was originally supposed to be a core Longhorn, er Vista, feature in Windows Server 2007. It will be made available to Windows Vista users as an update in the same time frame. What's the big deal about WinFS? The big win for end users is virtually instant search indexing and retrieval of anything on your system. Here's Paul's explanation and a promise of things to come:

"Even though Windows Vista will not include WinFS, it will still include virtually all of the end user search features that Microsoft had originally promised. Microsoft describes this feature—which is essentially instant desktop search—as "Find My Stuff." According to the company, the inclusion of WinFS will make Find My Stuff even more powerful. But as I'll demonstrate in my Windows Vista Beta 1 review (available August 3), the instant desktop search functionality in Windows Vista is still quite powerful, and arguably superior to similar features in Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" or Windows add-on products such as MSN Toolbar Suite with Windows Desktop Search"