If you've been trying to work with Windows Desktop Search 3.0 on XP or Vista and have been frustrated about which properties actually work, I've compiled two list.  Starting with the complete list of Shell API properties from MSDN, I ran them through a quick query app to see which error'd out.  The list of good properties is here:

http://www.ariankulp.com/downloads/WindowsShellOLEProperties.txt

For the list of shell API properties missing from the OLE DB interface, look here:

 http://www.ariankulp.com/downloads/WindowsShellOLE-MissingProperties.txt

There are a good number of working ones.  I have no idea why the others don't work.  I have also learned that for the search index, you don't need the scope() element (link) -- just use FROM SYSTEMINDEX.  Also, you don't need to use the double quotes around each column name, though I noticed that if you omit the quotes your result set will reference all column names in upper case.  For many uses this distinction won't matter, but it's worth mentioning.

I've been doing some work on search for an upcoming article, and I'm still excited about it.  Response time is quite fast.  New files get indexed quickly (though that's not really the same thing), and overall it's very useable.  I'd like to see some applications forego a file requester dialog in favor of some intelligent search.  The only downside is that it only searches local folders.  If there's a way to index network drives I haven't found it yet.


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