undocumented extended stored procedures

An extended stored procedure (xp) is a dynamic link library that runs directly in the address space of SQL Server and is programmed using the SQL Server Open Data Services API. You can run extended stored procedures from the Query Analyzer, for example, just as you would normal stored procedures. Extended stored procedures are used to extend the capabilities of SQL Server. You can take advantage of the many extended stored procedures that come with SQL Server, or you can write your own in a programming language such as C or C++.

sp_MSgetversion
This extended stored procedure can be used to get the current version of Microsoft SQL Server. To get the current SQL Server version, run

EXEC master..sp_MSgetversion

Note. A more common way to retrieve the current SQL Server version (this way provides more information) is to use following SELECT statement:

SELECT @@version

xp_dirtree
This extended stored procedure can be used to get a list of all the folders for the folder named in the xp. To get a list of all the folders in the C:\MSSQL7 folder, run:

EXEC master..xp_dirtree 'C:\MSSQL7'


xp_enum_oledb_providers
This extended stored procedure is used to list of all the available OLE DB providers. It returns Provider Name, Parse Name and Provider Description. To get a list of all OLE DB providers for your SQL Server, run:

EXEC master..xp_enum_oledb_providers


xp_enumcodepages
This extended stored procedure can be used to list of all code pages, character sets and their description for your SQL Server. To get a list of all code pages and character sets, run:

EXEC master..xp_enumcodepages


keep watching for more information