Microsoft has chosen sides in the next-gen optical format way, and it has fallen squarely on the side of Toshiba’s HD DVD format. They’ve even enticed HP over to their side by talking up iHD. And supposedly Microsoft will be supporting HD DVD in Windows Vista. (Strange that they have such bad DVD support in XP. DVD is an accepted format with no competitors. But HD DVD support? Sure, they’ll toss that in.) Anyway, officially Microsoft has professed no support for the Blu-ray format. But read this:

Much has been made of Microsoft’s supposed plan to include native support for only HD-DVD in their next OS, either in order to force customers to install extra software on their own and/or to force OEM’s to face licensing costs on their own. Despite that, Windows IT Pro says internal Microsoft documentation indicates a plan to add Blu-ray DVD support to beta versions of Windows Vista.

So maybe, just maybe, they will be supporting Blu-ray (which would be really nice).

HD Beat - Microsoft WILL support Blu-ray? In Vista at least (maybe?)