Smart MSDN knowledge base search both off-line and on-line

[Sushil Srivastava]

Hi Guys,

I have developed a utility that provide a smart MSDN
knowledge base search both off-line and on-line. I have
describe more in detail below why I decided to write this
utility (one reason is just for fun). Please let me know
if you need this utility.

Thanks
Sushil

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The Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) is a database full of
technical articles related to Microsoft products and
technologies. These articles range from "How To" articles
that describe how to accomplish a specific task, to "Bug"
articles that document known bugs in Microsoft products.
Programmers are very well aware of the frustration
searching MSDN knowledge based article. If you know the
KB ID you are a lucky one, other wise keep looking in a
500-search result list. This is a common perception that
KB articles consist of bugs in Microsoft product but
that's not a case it also contains wealth information that
as programmer I find it very useful. For example if I like
to find "How TO:" do thing in "VB6.0", I will
enter "kbhowto AND kbVB600" in a MSDN Search window. And I
will get a list of articles that describes different
programming aspect of Visual Basic 6.0. Similarly if I
would like to see "HOW TO:" do thing in Microsoft Outlook
using Visual Basic, I will enter "kbhowto AND (kboutlook
OR kboutlooksearch)" in a search window to get a list of
articles that describe how to do things in Outlook. And
using a "Search in previous results" check box button I
can search "Visual Basic" in the previous result that will
get me list of articles for how to do things in Outlook
using Visual Basic.

Basic problem searching the way I mentioned above is every
programmer needs to remember KB keywords and that is not
practical since there are more than 100 keywords.

MSDN online (http://msdn.microsft.com) KB database
maintains a bug list for each Microsoft product and in my
view that's very help for programmers. It also started
preparing (pre-build) How To: (as of Today there are only
3 query listed on the website) queries. Information is so
scattered I find it very confusing. It is an irony that
developers now a day goes to www.google.com and that take
them to MSDN on-line. But as I mentioned earlier, KB is
not a just a bug center it is more than that. And
unfortunately in order to fetch information you need to
remember KB keywords or go through different website to
locate for a problem that already exist on your local MSDN
database provided you have latest MSDN library.

So I decided to write a Smart Off-Line/On-Line Knowledge
Based MSDN search application (AdvancedMSDNSearch). This
application is very "open" and you can customize based on
your requirement. In this snap shot MSDN Knowledge Base
category list box contains all the products, technology,
various versions etc. But developer can limit what they
would like to keep in this list. Please let me know if you
need this utility.
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