The virtual file system (switch) is an instrinsic element of traditionaloperating systems and the majority of alternative OSes alike. For the mostpart, this is caused by existing applications that depend on the fileabstraction and to some extent on a global view on system resources. Incontrast, component-based OSes with strong security ambitions strive to applythe principle of least authority and shun one global view on the system. Thiswas the starting for the VFS developments for Genode. The talk will presentour design considerations and the current state of the VFS in Genode as acomponent and capability-based microkernel operating system.