Yesterday Microsoft surprisingly announced the first BETA of WinFS (compiled on the Aug 15 2005), but it is intended for use in Windows XP with SP2 only. However, it can easily be made to work in Windows Server 2003 and Vista (code name: “Longhorn”). Here are two ways to do it:

1. Get a HEX Editor application.
2. Start en_WinFS_Beta1.exe and it will extract the necessary contents to C:\\winfsbeta1 (by default). When the extraction process is done, you may get an error message on non-WXP SP2 systems - just disregard and close it.
3. Drag C:\\winfsbeta1\\winfs.msi to your HEX editor and go to offset 0×1FE9E.

Now you can choose one of the following:
#1 4. Look at the ASCII pane and replace = 501 with > 500.
#2 4. Look at the ASCII pane and replace 501 with [NTVersion_Major][NTVersion_Minor]. E.g. “501″ for Windows XP, “502″ for Windows Server 2003, “600″ for Windows Vista (fka. “Longhorn”).

5. At offset 0×1FEBC replace byte 0×32 with 0×30.

-Stanimir