Nearly 10 years ago Bill Gates opened Comdex with a keynote on "smart" computing powering gadgets around the home. Microsoft is not giving up on that dream-- and is working on a home automation platform, HomeOS.
A recently available 2010 research paper on the platform, which Microsoft was testing in 12 different homes over the last 4-8 months.
HomeOS follows the desktop PC model, where "all devices in the home appear as peripherals connected to a single logical PC." To handle the integration of multiple devices the platform uses "roles"-- packages of functionality associated with a particular household item.
To add further functionality, users simply buy new application drivers through HomeStore, a smartphone app store-style marketplace.
The paper gives no mention of HomeOS being Windows-based-- Microsoft has other non-Windows OS research projects, such as Singularity and Midori. The real question is whether Microsoft will actually start selling HomeOS, now that even Google (with Android@Home) wants a slice of the home automation pie.