Calling Windows Search programatically

Hi,

I have a software application which has a facility to automatically call Windows Desktop Search and pass a search parameter to it. This works fine on XP machines which have WDS installed

For example, you just run this command and WDS will search for every file associated with 'ref123':
"C:\Program Files\Windows Desktop Search\WindowsSearch.exe" /url "search-ms://query=ref123"

Now how can I do something similar in Windows 7?

Since Windows Search is not a component part of the OS, it is not longer installed in C:\Program Files and instead now consists of 3 different exes which are located in the System32 folder:
SearchIndexer.exe
SearchProtocolHost.exe
SearchFilterHost.exe

Anyone know how this can be done?

Thanks

Actually I am wrong in that SearchIndexer.exe, SearchProtocolHost.exe and SearchFilterHost.exe were also present in XP

So my problem is basically how do I call WindowsSearch.exe programatically in Windows 7 when it does not exist? Where can I find the built-in Windows 7 search application?

I am also trying to get answers re Windows Search in Windows 7 but don't seem to succeed (see thread Windows 7 Search issues). Can't believe that I am the only one having these problems.

From the run dialog I just ran "search-ms://query=ref123" and it opened a search window with a query for "ref123".

The search will run from the Run dialog box. This is the built in functionality of Windows 7

However what I want to do is to call this programatically (i.e. using code). So I need to find out where the Windows Search exe is located (if it even exists)

Any ideas?