As noted by the Associated Press, Microsoft has unveiled an effort to take on the Personal Knowledge Management space with a desktop search capability similar in intent to that announced by Google recently. Improved search was to have been bundled in with their Longhorn operating system release, but obviously the Redmond crew is feeling increasingly flat-footed in the face of content and technology developments that just won't wait for the software giant to get its act together. It really is amazing that an operating system that's approaching its twentieth anniversary has barely changed the manner in which it allows individuals and institutions to search and view content, leaving plenty of room for players such as ISYS to deliver high-performance and scalable search solutions. In trying to defend its operating system revenues by incorporating any area it wants to dominate into its operating system, Microsoft continues to create an ultimately indefensible position that requires it to coordinate a wide array of content technologies with its increasingly out-of-date Office core products. Instead of trying to lock in the unlockable, Microsoft should turn about and provide a lean and open core operating system that's rock-stable and concentrate on providing technology that adds value to content across the widest array of publishing environments available. Windows is already so dominant it will have little to lose by leaving its roots behind and concentrating on vContent from dawn until dusk.