DirectorySearcher.SearchRoot

The SearchRoot property gets or sets the node in the Active Directory hierarchy where the search starts.

public DirectoryEntry SearchRoot {get; set;}

Public Property SearchRoot As DirectoryEntry

Property Value

The DirectoryEntry in the Active Directory hierarchy where the search starts. The default is a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic).

Remarks

If SearchRoot is a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic), the search root is set to the root of the domain that your server is currently using.

There are several ways to search in the global catalog:

• Enumerate the global catalog, and pick the first child.

• Specify the server name. Use DsGetDcName to find the global catalog.

• Get the global catalog's RootDSE and ask for "rootNamingContext".

• Use the global catalog like LDAP. For example, "GC://OU=..., DC=..., DC=...".

• The following C# code shows how to enumerate the global catalog and pick the first child.

  [C#]

  DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry("GC://forestname");
  

IEnumerator ie = entry.Children.GetEnumerator(); ie.MoveNext(); entry = (DirectoryEntry)ie.Current; DirectorySearcher search = new DirectorySearcher(entry);

Requirements

Client	Requires Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows Me, or Windows 98.
Server	Requires Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, or Windows NT 4.0.
Namespace	Defined in System.DirectoryServices.
Assembly	Requires System.DirectoryServices (in System.DirectoryServices.dll).
.NET Framework	Requires .NET Framework 1.0.

See Also

DirectoryEntry, DirectorySearcher, DirectorySearcher Constructors, DirectorySearcher Methods, DirectorySearcher Properties, System.DirectoryServices Namespace, DirectorySearcher Members (Visual J# Syntax), Managed Extensions for C++ Programming