WinXP "Search" not working....

WinXP Pro SP2. I know the "Search" feature was working fine a week or two ago. But just now, I clicked Start, clicked Search, and nothing happened. So I opened My Computer, navigated to the folder I wanted to search, right clicked and selected Search... still no joy. I was eventually able to start a Search by opening drive C: (double-clicked it in My Computer), and in the left pane a "Search for files or folders" link showed up, and this opened the Search Companion. Currently, this appears to be the only way to search. Now, this isn't a real big deal, I'll continue to live and my head isn't about to go in the oven, but it would be nice if my Search worked the way it should. I use the right-click-on-a-folder-and-select-search thing all the time and I'm a bit lost without it. I did some Googling and tried numerous 'fixes' and what not, but nothing has worked yet. Many fixes mention a certain registry entry but that key doesn't even appear in my registry....
:cry
Help!

[dlb]

(Just to be clear: the Search feature DOES appear in my Start menu; it's there but it does nothing when I click on it)

 

After a bit more research, I found that if I open My Computer and hit CTRL+E, the Search Companion opens in the left pane, but still no dice for Start > Search....
:confused

 

I can't help you with your Start > Search. problem but I can offer a better Search program (IMO)

Give Cathy a try from MG
http://majorgeeks.com/Cathy_d5874.html

It is a really small download and leaves MS Search facility for dead in speed, and features listed in the quote above. Only down side is that you must do a manual update of your drive/s every so often. It does not index itself automtically.

Well worth a try.:cool One of my Favourite programs. I use it often, never use MS Search.

Bazza

 

I use "Everything" search engine right now instead of the WinXP search on my PC. It's very fast. Only negative is that it will only search for the characters in the name of the file, not in the context, etc.

http://www.voidtools.com/

 

dlb

You might find the remedy here:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_s.htm#search

and look for the entry under "Search - Doesn't Work", which seems as though it would apply to your situation.

 

Yeah, I'm aware that other programs can be used for searching. That's not the problem here. If I was after a 3rd party search tool, I know there's several good free ones...

@ AustrAlien: thanks. I tried the stuff at Kelly's Korner and it didn't work. I read somewhere about TweakUI either causing this issue (I have never used it) and fixing the issue. I attached a screen shot below. Changing the setting shown in the screen shot doesn't change anything...

Any other ideas out there?
:cry

 

I cannot determine from your reply whether you actually found the entry I was referring to. It actually had nothing to do with TweakUI. It was a "restore/installation" from your Windows installation disk, and if your search function was entirely missing should have fully installed/restored it. If you did try it, and it didn't work, I would suggest renaming your current search file (presuming it to be corrupt?) and then doing the install of a fresh copy from the Windows disk. Then again, it could be the Search shortcuts that are corrupt, so I would suggest checking the shortcut properties/target if the above does not give a positive result.

 

Yeah. I know. I was just elaborating on something I had run into while doing my own research on this. I did try the 'fix' where I located the .INF file and inserted my XP disc and it copied several files from it. This did not fix the issue. However, I believe I have located the source of the problem... I came across this fix:

The first 'regsvr32' command works fine, the second one errors out with the message attached below.... so, now what?

 

The search feature I use most is the right-click search feature where I can right-click any folder (or shortcut to a folder) and select 'Search' from the context menu. This function does nothing too... no error, no window, no lag, no hourglass, nothing. However, if I open a folder (or My Computer) and hit F3 or CTRL+E, the Search Companion opens just fine. So the problem is Start>Search and right-click>Search do not do a freekin' thing.
:confused

 

Investigate the following suggested moves:

Start > Run > cmd > sfc /scannow and if requested, insert your Windows CD.

If that doesn't fix your problem(s), check out Dial-a Fix:

http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Dial-a-fix#Object_registration_and_policy_statistics

I strongly suggest you do all the preparation tasks as outlined in the above link to avoid potential problems. Then download and run Dial-a Fix, and in the Tools (the Hammer icon) section, run all of them. Help is available in this forum:

http://forums.lunarsoft.net/index.php??

 

Better still, how about going straight to the Lunarsoft forums/Dial-a-fix forum (you do not even have to register with Lunarsoft to post in the Dial-a-Fix forum!) and post this problem there and see whether they think that Dial-a-Fix is the appropriate tool to get you fixed up.

I'm sorry, but I do not have any personal experience with actually using Dial-a-Fix, so cannot offer any more reassurance, other than report that other users have recommended it as a very useful tool, and from my very basic/limited experience it would seem to me that this might just work for you.

 

Dial-A-Fix was tried already and didn't fix the problem. It also errored out on the "shdocvw.dll " file. However, I didn't use the Tools, I only used the boxes in the 'Registration Center'. I'll try SFC in the morning, but I have doubts. I've tried SFC for many, many ptoblems and rarely had it actually fix anything, but it's worth a shot.... thanks for the help so far!

 

OK- so I tried running sfc /scannow and I got 2 errors immediately: the first was that files in the DLL cache were incorrect and the correct files were needed from the WinXP Pro install CD and to insert the CD -so I did. I then got the 2nd error which said that CD was not WinXP Pro SP2. It was. At this point, I'm pretty much PO'd 'cuz I hate running repair installs. So I bit the bullet and ran the repair install. It spontaneously rebooted in an odd place during the install at about 7 minutes in, but after that it finished really fast, in less than 15min total after the weird reboot. BUT, right after the desktop came up, I got something that worried me: "Windows has recovered from a serious error, do you want to send the error report". Of course I sent the report and got a message that the error was caused by spooldr.sys which might be malware, so I ran a MBAM scan, a Super AntiSpyware scan, and an AntiVir scan. All came back 100% clean. I launched regedit and search for 'spooldr.sys' and it is not in the registry. Strange. I'm thinking it may be time to back up some stuff and wipe and reload. Luckily, I make a habit of storing everything on a 2nd hard drive, so drive C: only contains my OS and installed programs, and the last time I did a full clean install, I used Acronis after the OS and drivers and system apps (like Office, Firefox, codecs, antivirus, etc) were all installed. So the clean install won't be a huge problem, it's just a pain-in-the-a**......

Oh yea, the Search feature now works. :-D I can click Start > Search and it opens as it should..... what a freakin nightmare for something so minor....

 

Oh yeah, I also ran 2 separate rootkit scans and those came up clean too.... well, not really clean, but if you know about running rootkit scans they always find something and it's up to you to determine if the listings are legit.... only 4 items were listed in the 1st rootkit scan, and the same 4 and a 5th item were listed in the 2nd scan, and they were all OK. So I have no idea what the deal was with the message I got from Windows Error Reporting, but everything appears to be OK for the time being, but I will do a clean install soon, probably next weekend....

 

It would seem to me likely that you had and probably still have a rootkit infection .... see
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=135997

Check if any of these are present on the system:
C:\Windows\spooldr.exe,
C:\Windows\system32\spooldr.sys
C:\Windows\system32\drivers\spooldr.sys

Google spooldr.exe and check out the results.

Visit the MG Malware Removal Forum.

 

Sorry, I should have mentioned it, but I thought you would have known that sfc /scannnow requires the Windows CD to have at least SP2.

If you haven't done it already, slipstream SP2 and SP3 using Autostreamer ... it is just so easy you will wonder why you didn't do it years ago ..... ?

 

Uhhh.... yeah. I mentioned numerous times that I have WinXP Pro SP2 installed. I also mentioned that my install CD is also SP2. I work on many, many, MANY systems on a very regular basis, and I have used SFC many, many times on many systems, and I have rarely had it fix anything. But I keep trying it 'cuz it's got be worth something... And I am in the process of downloading SP3 as we speak to create the slipstream install disc. I had decided to do this last night before I went to bed. Why didn't I slipstream it "years ago"? It is simply not possible mainly because SP3 has only been out for just over a year; since late April 2008 if I remember, and I have not personally seen any reason to install SP3 on this PC, and I don't think having SP3 installed would have made one bit of difference in this situation.

Anyway- all is well. Search is working the way it should be, the PC is running great, every scan has come up 100% clean (except for the rootkit scans, but I've already discussed this), and I'm a happy guy again. :-D

[dlb]