In the year 2000, Microsoft tried very innovative idea which looks very odd today.
Windows File System, where the Windows operating system stores data and metadata for Operating Systems and programs, Microsoft tried to introduce an SQL layer in the file system.
Microsoft wanted to combine the traditional file system and SQL together
This effort was named as WinFS (Windows Future Storage) and it was experimented in the Windows Vista Project
The basic idea was rich metadata and large data will be stored in SQL Server instead of Files and Folders
Why did Microsoft try using SQL Server in the Windows File System?
Microsoft wanted to lower their dependancies on traditional file and folder storage; it was old and messy.
Storing data in SQL would provide relationships and metadata, so the search will be improved
SQL can index tables and make searches faster, file system slow comparitively
Microsoft wanted to make windows as data centric OS where users will be free from storage location
Why the idea failed?
using SQL could have changed the way Operating systems manage data but the idea failed and the reasons were multiple
The first reason was the hardware; in the year 2000, the hardware was not capable enough to execute such a complex system
Big reason was the backward compatibility also
Why Microsoft is not implementing that idea today?
Compatibility is the big issue even today, the decades-old maturity is more important than experiment
Microsoft is slowly overcoming the lacks of traditional file system