Microsoft has released a beta of yet another delayed system - WinFS, which was to have been a key part of the seriously tardy Vista, now theoretically due out half-way through next year.

“A test of the technology was made available for download from Microsoft’s Developer Network Web site Monday,” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Microsoft decided in August 2004 to yank WinFS out of the main Windows Vista release to ensure the larger program would be completed in 2006. That led investors to worry customers would delay buying Vista until WinFS, which makes it easier to organize and find data, became available.

WinFS will be available as an add-on release sometime in 2007, Quentin Clark, WinFS director of program management is quoted as saying in TechWorld.

“The beta includes a set of APIs and schemas that allow developers to start working with the new file system and get accustomed to the new data model,” Clark said,