Managing Windows Indexing Service with Visual Basic.NET using WMI
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This article explains how to manage the Windows Indexing Service using the .NET framework. We will manage the Indexing Service using WMI (together with .NET).
The sample downloadable solution (zip) is entirely developed using Visual Studio.NET 2003 Enterprise Architect on Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition. But, I am confident that it would work with other versions of Windows (which support .NET 1.1) as well.
Introduction to Indexing Service
"Indexing Service" is not a new service. It has been available since Windows 2000 (I am not sure about Windows NT). You can use Indexing Service to index documents and document properties on your disks and store the information in a "catalog." You can also use Indexing Service to search for documents, either through Search on the Start menu or through a web browser. It also allows users to perform fast full-text searches.
Indexing Service in Windows is also a favorite for many web application developers (especially ASP.NET developers), as they can implement "search site" within their website (or web application) very easily. Most of all, it also supports "SELECT" queries against indexed information available in catalogs.
How do you check whether the Indexing Service exists on your system? Just go to Administrative Tools -> Services. And within the list of several services, you should see "Indexing Service." If you are unable to find it, then I can confirm that the component is not installed on your system.
How do you get it installed? Just open "Add/Remove Programs" in "Control Panel" and within the dialog box, click on "Add/Remove Windows Components." You will be presented with a list of all Windows components. The components that are checked are already installed on your computer. So, make sure that "indexing service" is checked (as shown in Fig1) and click "Next" to proceed through installation. It may ask for Windows OS CD if necessary.
Next: How to work with/manage Indexing Service >>
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