To answer the original query, HTW files are part of the Index Server service that comes bundled with IIS. This service allows you to build a search engine on your web site.

As the SysAdmin of an IIS box hosting a wb site, you would create an HTML form that allows users to search your web site. They complete the form and submit it to IIS. Index Server then builds an "intermediate form" called an IDQ file. This is the file that Index Server will use to search the web site. Index Server, having run the search, then stores the resultant hits in a file called a HTX file. Any formatting of these hits (including highlighting) is defined by the Web Site SysAdmin in a file called a HTW file. Index Server applies the formatting settings stored in the HTW file to the search hits stored in the HTX file and returns the resultant HTML to the user's browser.

Got that? Basically, an HTW file is part of the Index Server service in IIS, and Index Server is the backend to a search engine utility built into IIS. The HTW file tells Index Server how to format the resultant hits of a search before passing those hits to the user. When I say formatting, I mean making the text look pretty on the screen

Index Server is full of holes, and these are documented on BugTraq. If you're not using Index Server, stop the service in "services" in Control Panel, and set it to start manually.

Regards all,

Alan Mott