Search function not working at all in XP

Sorry about the "lack of detail in my post", as you put it. Didn't think there was alot of relevance in the fact that my computer is up to date. This isn't the first day I have had this issue. It has been going on for quite some time. And yes my PC is completley up to date, SP2 most recent service pack , I have a firewall and IDS as well and run frequent checks for malware and spyware. I can't tell you the last time I had to worry about a virus on my machine. And just for humor sake I ran Hijackthis and checked my firewall settings and ran a virus scan after checking for new virus definitions. No notable problems on my system. This is not the problem. The problem is the SEARCH function is simply not operating and with eveything I have tried, nothing is even remotely close to why its happening.

If it's considered irrelevant to ask to for details, I feel I must bow out. Best of luck and I hope you find it.

Bob

taking the huff, bob?

after 5 years?

Mark

You may have tried this already, but to be sure you should 'expand' the file from the Recovery Console.
phantazy

Thanks alot Phantazy for your help, I had tried to reinstall the .dll from the I386 folder already so that hasn't fixed it. I did the whole recovery console and that also didn't work. I appreciate you taking the time to consider some answers. If you have anything else I would love to attempt it as I am still stuck with the problem.

On another note, the Search function is not completely missing and not working as I thought originally. I can open up an Explorer window and click the Search on the menu bar and bring up the program in that window. It just does not want to work in the other two places (the Start menu and the right clicking My Computer and hitting Search).

JAY

I have a vague memory that this problem was caused by a recalcitrant windows update. Somebody loaded about 40 all at once after a re-install and this happened, and the solution was to uninstall one by one until it was fixed. Can you pinpoint when this occurred and whether any updates were installed beforehand?

Not a clue, I will take a look at my update history and see if there was anything in particular that stands out. It has been happening for some time, I am talking months so exactly pinpointing it will be tough, thanks for the option, Reinstalling Windows right now is not an option so everything I try is a plus.

JAY

Hi - I have the same or a very similar problem with my XP search assistant. When I try to search for a file the Explorer window on the left where the folders go, and where the search parameters used to show up, just goes blank - all I see there is my desktop background color. I tried the fixes above and still have the problem. I've scanned my PC with every AV product I can get my hands on for free and no luck there (which is actually kinda good...) The problem has been with me for weeks now, I can't recall whether the latest update or installing Kaspersky happened just before it shoed up. This was a recent XP install (months) and I got a whole lot of updates all at once, but the search worked fine for quite a while until recently (weeks).
Please let me know if you need me to check anything or supply more info. *crosses fingers*

Jay,I fell in exactly similar situation as you. In my case, new IE windows could not be opened in web browsing etc. So I think it relates something with IE, and tried to re-install it.
In my case, I just uninstall and re-install IE from "Windows component add & delete" panel, such that just uncheck IE and process, and re-check IE and process.
Hope this helps.

OK I tried uninstalling all the updates installed after the initial XP install. Didn't help.
I still can't open the Explorer search function.
I tried installing the srchasst file too, no luck.
When I hit the search button in Explorer it pauses for a good 8 seconds like it's trying to find something and can't.
Almost like a trojan attack that doesn't want to be found...

Does that sound likely or familiar to anyone??

thanks...

>Right click on start menu>properties>start menu tab>customize>advance>is the search box checked?

Did you mean right click on the start button?
when I start from there, advanced goes to Explorer/s Start Menu...??
I get a checkbox list at Customize, but there's no search checkbox there.

>Windows explorer>right click a blank spot at the right end of the menu where the icons are>customize,highlight search on the left, click Add

Yes the search icon is there, that's how I've been accessing Search.
I tried removing it, then re-adding it, still no luck.

?????

When you go to right click on start>properties>start menu tab>customize>advance tab>in the start menu items box,scroll down to search,is it there.

Tom

When I right click on start>properties>start menu tab>customize I get a checklist box titled Advanced Menu Items, BEFORE I click on the advanced tab. I'm guessing that's what you mean.
There's nothing about searching in there.
There are things like expand My Documents, Scroll Programs, Show Small Icons in Start Menu, etc. but nothing regarding searching.
Does that help??

Click on the advanced tab,you should see this,SCREEN SHOT

Tom

AHA - I was using the Classic Style.
Yes the box is there and Yes it's checked.

King of Potatoes, See the last post #28 in the thread at the link below.

http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/forum/windows-xp/17218-search-companion-not-working-2.html

Tufenuf

I searched my registry for the vaue listed in post #7, and found that (I think) the 3rd instance of it,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FindExtensions\Static\ShellSearch\0\SearchGUID\UrlNavNew


had 2 colons in front of it. Like this.

::{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}

See that \0\ zero directory near the end? there's also a /1/ and a /2/ and the value for the /1/ is different and also has 2 colons in front of it. The value in /2/ is different still, but has no colons.

Is that anything? Should I delete the colons? how about the /1/ and /2/... should they be deleted?

...it had 2 colons in front of it. Like this.

::{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849}

See that \0\ zero directory near the end? there's also a /1/ and a /2/ and the value for the /1/ is different and also has 2 colons in front of it. The value in /2/ is different still, but has no colons.

Is that anything? Should I delete the colons? how about the /1/ and /2/... should they be deleted?

get a copy if tweakui ver 1.33, set it up, go to control panel and under 'desktop' check the "search results" box and voila, it works like advertized.

any Luck yet

START -- > RUN --->
regsvr32 wshom.ocx
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 urlmon.dll


after this just restart and Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!11

Your 3 line fix worked perfectly...Thanks alot

Thank you for making this easy.

Your 3 line targeted time saving and perfectly work ...Thank you very much

It's a problem of service registration.
Try this (that works for me).

Open a shell (start -> run -> cmd):
regsvr32 /i C:\Windows\Srchasst\srchui.dll
regsvr32 /i urlmon
regsvr32 jscript
right-click windows/inf/srchasst.inf > install

The problem, for me has started after kaspersky av uninstall!!!

Andrea