Is there a way to automate changing search indexing parameters?

Hi,
I want to play with various ways to make indexed search work to my liking.

Question 1: Are there some command line utility or VBScripting ways to
change what is indexed, and if so, what are they and where are they
documented?

For example, I'm thinking that in order to be able to index all files
(meaning ALL, no matter who the owner is, or hidden or system status, or
whatever), perhaps I could change the option to index every file extension
with the 'file properties' filter. I'm thinking that this filter should
allow rebuilding the index in a matter of minutes and give rapid results
similar to what we got with W98. Doing that manually has two problems: 1)
it would take a lot of tedious clicking, and 2) I have no way of knowing if
the list of file extensions in that window contains an entry for every one
of my files.

Question 2: How can I get a list of the extensions already being indexed so
I can use a script decide whether I have to add more extensions to the list.

Question 3: What document or URL tells us what words are, or are not,
indexed, (or gives a general description relating to what is indexed) for
each of the various filters that are applied to a file extension?

-Paul Randall