You can extend Windows Search 4.0 with add-ins. Protocol handlers, property handlers, and filters enable indexing additional data stores and file types. Preview handlers enable users to get a preview of the content of a result item without opening the item’s associated application. Toolbars provide easy access to searches. Extending Windows Search in these ways enables you to perform the following tasks:
Filters (implementations of the IFilter interface) are required to index the properties and contents of file types. Common filters include those that are already in Microsoft Office™ and that let you index, view, and search file names, metadata, and the contents of .doc or .xls files, for example.
For files with no extension, only basic properties like filename are indexed. On the Indexing Option -> Advanced -> File Types tab, you can add a new extension with just the dot “.” as the value and then choose whether to index properties only or properties and content. As many different types of files may not have a file name extension associated with them, you need to be cautious when indexing the content of such files (for example, if users have a lot of binary files without a file name extension).
In addition, more custom file types can be interpreted and viewed in your preferred format when you create filters or protocol handlers. For file attachments, a limited number of file types are inherently enabled for preview in the Windows Search results window. For additional control, the IT administrator can specify via policy additional file types that are allowed to be previewed via the Windows Search results window.
Windows Search has a filter to index virtually any file type as text, including the file name, the metadata, and the contents of the file. Windows Search indexes some popular file types as text and excludes others, as described below. Users can change these defaults on the on the File Types tab in the Advanced Options dialogue from the Indexing Options Control Panel. For additional control, IT administrators can also prevent certain file types from being indexed via Group Policy.
By default, the following file types are indexed as text:
.a, .ans, .asc, .asm, .bas, .bat, .bcp, .c, .cc, .cls, .cmd, .cpp, .cs, .csa, .cxx, .dbs, .def, .dic, .dos, .dsp, .dsw, .ext, .faq, .fky, .h, .hpp, .hxx, .i, .ibq, .dl, .idq, .inc, .inf, .ini, .inl, .inx, .jav, .java, .js, .kci, .lgn, .log, .lst, .m3u, .mak, .map, .mdb, .mk, .odh, .odl, .pl, .prc, .rc, .rc2, .rct, .reg, .rgs, .rul, .s, .scc, .sol, .sql, .tab, .tdl, .tiff, .tlh, .tli, .trg, .txt, .udf;udt, .usr, .vbs, .viw, .vspscc, .vsscc, .vssscc, .wri, .wtx
Windows search can also index .xps files as text if the application that created the files does not rasterize the file.
By default, the following file types are excluded from the index:
.386, .aps, .bin, .bk1, .bk2, .bkf, .blf, .bsc, .btr, .cat, .cfg, .cgm, .chk, .ci, .crwl, .cur, .dat, .dbg, .dct, .dir, .dl_, .el, .evt, .ex_, .exp, .eyb, .fnt, .fon, .ghi, .gthr, .hqx, .icm, .idb, .idx, .ilk, .imc, .in_, .ini, .inv, .ipp, .jbf, .lib, .local, .log, .log1, .log2, .m14, .mac, .man, .manifest, .map, .MAPIMail, .mmf, .mui, .muimanifest, .mv, .ncb, .obj, .oc_, .ocx, .onecache, .onetoc, .onetoc2, .ost, .pch, .pdb, .pds, .pf, .pic, .pma, .pmc, .pml, .pmr, .pst, .res, .rmp, .rpc, .rsp, .sbr, .sc2, .sit, .sr_, .sy_, .sym, .tlb, .tlh, .tmf, .tmp, .ttc, .ttf, .ufm, .vbx, .vxd, .wll, .wlt, .xbm, .xix, .z96, .ZFSendToTarget