Categories and Keywords
for all Knowledge Base Articles
Article last modified on May 22, 1997
[This used to be Knowledge Base article Q94671. It has been discontinued. It isn’t clear to me whether the discontinuation was because it is no longer accurate in some sense, though it certainly is dated. Nonetheless, it seems to be quite valuable so I am making its text available here. — JAE]
To categorize articles within the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) and to make finding information easier, Microsoft has developed a common set of keywords for use throughout the KB.
Each KB article has at least one subject keyword, and the first keyword in the list is the primary subject category for that article. There may be additional secondary subject keywords on that same line as well as type keywords (such as kbhowto and kbfile) that categorize the type of the article (such as a how-to article or an article that points to a file).
NOTE: The kbfile type keyword is required in all articles that point to a file in the Microsoft Software Library (MSL) in addition to the primary subject keyword.
NOTE: At the end of this article is a table that lists formerly used keywords and their replacements. [EDITOR’S NOTE: No longer available.]
CATEGORIES AND KEYWORDS
- kb3rdparty: Interactions with third-party products
- kbdisplay: Display (video, monitor, resolution) issues
- kbenv: Environment and configuration information including operating system settings, Windows registry settings, .ini file settings, and development environment issues
- kbgraphic: Graphics, including programming issues
- kbhw: Hardware
- kbinterop: Interaction (connectivity) between Microsoft products (for example, Visual Basic, Microsoft Access, OLE, and MAPI) but not between shared components such as the Jet engine, forms, and so on
- kbmm: Multimedia (all homemm articles, Haunted House, Magic School Bus, Explorapedia, and so on), including programming issues.
- kbnetwork: Networking, including programming issues
- kbole: OLE technology, including programming issues
- kbother: Other, any subject not covered in other categories
- kbpolicy: Support boundaries, policies, processes, and procedures
- kbprg: General programming not covered by other subject keywords
- kbprint: Printing, including programming issues
- kbreadme: Readme files
- kbref: Lists (vendor phone numbers, disk directories, reading lists, and so on), FAQs, and other general references
- kbsetup: Setup and installation issues
- kbsound: Sound (audio) issues
- kbtool: Tools, utilities, wizards, compilers, and applets such as MS Draw or Write
- kbui: User interface, including programming the user interface
- kbusage: Description of product features or functionality
- kbappnote: Application notes
- kbbuglist: Goes in the official bug list for a particular version of a product
- kbbug: Any article that discusses a confirmed bug.
- kbcode: Sample code
- kbdocerr: Documentation errors
- kberrmsg: Error message follow-up information
- kbfaq: List of frequently-asked questions and their answers
- kbfasttip: FastTip scripts or maps
- kbfile: Pointer to one or more files in the Microsoft Software Library
- kbfix: Any article that discusses a fixed confirmed bug
- kbfixlist: The official fix list for particular version of a product
- kbhelpfile: Article that points to a KB help file
- kbhowto: Step-by-step examples or procedures to accomplish a task
- kbkeyword: Articles listing product-specific keywords
- kbmacro: Sample macro
- kbprb: Problems not classified as bugs
- kbtlc: Articles and Application Notes that are listed in the FastTip Technical Library Catalog
- kbtshoot: Troubleshooting information
KBCategory: kbref
KBSubcategory:
Additional reference words: kbkeyword key word kbcdg dskbguide kbquery
Keywords : <product-specific go here> kbkeyword kbref keywords kbdocerr kbhw kbsetup
Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1997.