Search problems

[Ian]

I am running IE 6 under Windows XP Professional. Search not longer works,
and I am suspicious that the problems are caused by the June patches. I had
to remove MSIA which solved a lot of problems with IE, but Search is still a
problem!

When IE is opened with the Search pane present, or when the Search pane is
opened otherwise, line 32 gives a Permission denied Error, a MS Jscript error
at the start of the GetPartnerText function.

If I ignore that error, enter a search term, and click the Search button, I
get the same error in the same place in the same function but it is now
reported as line 38.

If I continue on, I get no results, and when I close the Search pane I get
an Invalid arguement in line 5 "s.style.width = size;" in the function
resize. If I have not done a search, I get this same error.

If I click on the Customize button in the Search pane, I get a permission
denied error in line 124, a MS Jscript error at the second executable line of
function loadSettings.

I can go on doing other things and generating other errors in Customize
Search Settings Window, but there does not seem much point.

I found a reference,
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...bff0&mid=106a83c2-ec38-4f0e-8b10-75a08efce344,
which indicates that MS has removed the Customize Search ability from their
servers? But the Customize button is still there in the Search pane!

I tried resetting my IE settings as described in KB 895339, but it made no
difference. The registry entries all were as in the KB, except that the
subkey that was to be deleted did not exist.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

State your full Windows version (e.g., WinXP SP3; WinXP 64-bit SP2).

Try doing a Reset this way:

HOW TO Reset Internet Explorer (IE6)
====================
Note: The following will delete all cookies. To save them beforehand: IE
File | Import and Export | Export Cookies | save the file in an appropriate
location. To import the backup afterwards: IE File | Import and Export |
Import Cookies | point the wizard to the saved file.

----------------------------------------
1. Click Start, Run, type: “inetcpl.cpl†(without quotation marks) and press
Enter.
2. Select the General tab, and in the Temporary Internet files window, click
"Delete Cookies", and click OK.
3. In the same tab click Delete Files, check the "Delete all offline
contents" box and click OK.
4. Click the Programs tab, and click "Reset Web Settings".
5. Click the Advanced tab, and click "Restore Defaults".
6. Under the Advanced tab, uncheck "Enable third-party browser extensions
(requires restart)".
7. Click OK.
8. Reboot.

Also see http://www.malwarehelp.org/how-to-reset-internet-explorer-6-to.html

What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)?

Has a Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this machine
(e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought it)?

 

[Ian]

Windows XP Professional SP3 patched to date.

I really don't think resetting IE is going to be the answer. In seems to me
that MS, in introducing their new search program (Bing), has left a bunch of
loose ends. For instance, in the search pane, it does not show any name for
what program is going to do the search. And the errors I am getting look
like the scripts are OK but needed references cannot be found. I would have
thought that with the move to Bing some of the Registry entries referenced in
the KB article might have changed!

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I am running IE 6 under Windows XP Professional. Search not longer works,
and I am suspicious that the problems are caused by the June patches. I had
to remove MSIA which solved a lot of problems with IE, but Search is still a
problem!

When IE is opened with the Search pane present, or when the Search pane is
opened otherwise, line 32 gives a Permission denied Error, a MS Jscript error
at the start of the GetPartnerText function.

What URL are you getting? Right-click in the dialog and use Properties
to find it.

BTW is this en-us or a different locale?

If I ignore that error, enter a search term, and click the Search button, I
get the same error in the same place in the same function but it is now
reported as line 38.

If I continue on, I get no results, and when I close the Search pane I get
an Invalid arguement in line 5 "s.style.width = size;" in the function
resize. If I have not done a search, I get this same error.

If I click on the Customize button in the Search pane, I get a permission
denied error in line 124, a MS Jscript error at the second executable line of
function loadSettings.

What happens if you try to use it manually?

http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/srchcust.htm

where BING has been added to the list may be wishful thinking
I suspect. <eg>

FWIW in my case under IE8 I am getting an Information bar message
saying "This website wants to run the following add-on: Shell Doc Object
and Control Library" from Microsoft..." so perhaps security/obscurity
has disabled that in your system? Something like this, for example...

<title>Microsoft Security Advisory (969898): Update Rollup for ActiveX Kill Bits</title>
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/969898.mspx

but then it looks as if it would have to be something which you either
had not previously applied or which you had previously disabled...

<quote>
Does this update replace the Cumulative Security Update of ActiveX Kill Bits (950760)?
No, for the purpose of automatic updating, this update does not replace
the Cumulative Security Update of ActiveX Kill Bits (950760)
that is described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-032.
Automatic updating will still offer the MS08-032 update to customers
regardless of whether or not they installed this update (969898).
However, customers who install this update (969898) do not need to install
the MS08-032 update to be protected with all the kill bits set in MS08-032.
</quote>

.... which I am not going to bother researching now. ; )

I can go on doing other things and generating other errors in Customize
Search Settings Window, but there does not seem much point.

I found a reference,
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...bff0&mid=106a83c2-ec38-4f0e-8b10-75a08efce344,
which indicates that MS has removed the Customize Search ability from their
servers? But the Customize button is still there in the Search pane!

So? That is just the dialog, an artifact of an old implementation
which is still seen on the client side. The thread you found was telling you
that the *server* side has changed. Evidently the owners of the server
(e.g. MSN) don't want to continue supporting such an obsolete
non-revenue-generating feature.


Good luck

Robert
---

 

[Ian]

I have AVG for Anti-virus, updated daily, Ad-Aware for Malware, updated at
least weekly, Windows firewall, and a router that also acts as a firewall.

I used to have Norton on the machine, but I think never McAfee, and Norton
was removed far back (over 2 years), including running the special cleanup
routine.

 

[Ian]

Thanks for the reply Robert.
I don't know what "dialog" you are referring to when you say right-click and
use Properties. Do you mean right-click on the "Search" at the top of the
search pane? If I do that and take the option "Open in window" (there is no
"Properties" option) the url in the window which opens is
http://www.bing.com/srchasst/en-ca/srchasst/srchasst.htm. Doing a search in
this window gives me the error I had doing it from the Search pane, as was to
be expected.
I also don't know for sure what locale I have. Language is
English(Canadian). Is there somewhere where I can see locale? From the url
above I think the locale is en-ca.
Running the Customize Search manually with the url you supplied works fine
(except that one image was not rendered, but the screen is different since it
has 3 radio buttons (I only had 2), and where I had "Loading search
settings..." it shows 2 selection boxes, "Find a Web Page" and "Choose a
search provider for address bar searches". Both boxes show "Bing" as the
first entry!
The June patches included Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 6
for Windows XP (KB969897) and Update Rollup for ActiveXKillbits for Windows
XP (KB96978). These are the ones I suspect!

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Thanks for the reply Robert.
I don't know what "dialog" you are referring to when you say right-click and
use Properties. Do you mean right-click on the "Search" at the top of the
search pane? If I do that and take the option "Open in window" (there is no
"Properties" option)

You referred to the "search pane" which I interpreted to mean the old
Search Explorer bar. E.g. as opened in IE6 by pressing Ctrl-e.
What that would be is a URL rendered to fit that bar. So you're right,
I shouldn't have used the word dialog, that is ambiguous. I meant
right-click in whatever is rendered underneath the controls, and you
should be able to do things like Properties and View Source with that.

the url in the window which opens is
http://www.bing.com/srchasst/en-ca/srchasst/srchasst.htm.

In fact, in IE8 I can't right-click on that as I had remembered.
I think I may be thinking of doing that after a search was done.
It has been a long time since I last used IE6, let alone its Search bar.

But what I can do is use IE8 Developer Tools (press F12) and see the
source that way. YMMV. ; )

Doing a search in this window gives me the error I had doing it from the Search pane,
as was to be expected.

I also don't know for sure what locale I have. Language is
English(Canadian). Is there somewhere where I can see locale?
From the url above I think the locale is en-ca.
Correct.


Running the Customize Search manually with the url you supplied works fine
(except that one image was not rendered, but the screen is different since it
has 3 radio buttons (I only had 2), and where I had "Loading search
settings..." it shows 2 selection boxes, "Find a Web Page" and "Choose a
search provider for address bar searches". Both boxes show "Bing" as the
first entry!

Since the domain of the URL is now BING (instead of MSN) that sort of makes sense. ; )

But that raises another relevant question. What happens if you try a
search from the Address bar? E.g. in the Address bar indicate
an explicit search from it by starting your query with "? " (Question mark
and at least one space. Or Find or Go.)

BTW that's a reason why I hardly ever used the search bar
even when it was available. It was just much more convenient
searching from the Address bar and then using the Just show...
option to get a full screen of hits than to be bothered
with all the fiddling involved by trying to use the Search bar.
YMMV.

The June patches included Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 6
for Windows XP (KB969897) and Update Rollup for ActiveXKillbits for Windows
XP (KB96978). These are the ones I suspect!

Could be!

BTW I was going to suggest trying an alternate search using Rob's site
to set it up but apparently it is down for "one or two days". <eg>

http://www.iecustomizer.com/

<note source="javascript:document.lastModified">
12/07/2008 20:52:50
<note>


Robert
---

 

[Ian]

I checked out the Registry Entries given in KB895339 against my Vista/IE8
registry. There are certainly differences, and some of them suggest that the
KB entries have not been updated for Bing.

If I try "? SearchTerm" in the address bar, I get a url of
auto.search.msn.com/response.asp?MT=SearchTerm&srch=0&prov=&utf8 and a Cannot
find server "The page cannot be displayed" page.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Fine, be that way.

Windows XP Professional SP3 patched to date.

I really don't think resetting IE is going to be the answer. In seems to
me
that MS, in introducing their new search program (Bing), has left a bunch
of
loose ends. For instance, in the search pane, it does not show any name
for
what program is going to do the search. And the errors I am getting look
like the scripts are OK but needed references cannot be found. I would
have
thought that with the move to Bing some of the Registry entries referenced
in the KB article might have changed!

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I checked out the Registry Entries given in KB895339 against my Vista/IE8
registry. There are certainly differences, and some of them suggest that the
KB entries have not been updated for Bing.

Not too much point in comparing there. Vista never had IE6,
so never had Search Assist. ; )

If I try "? SearchTerm" in the address bar, I get a url of
auto.search.msn.com/response.asp?MT=SearchTerm&srch=0&prov=&utf8 and a Cannot
find server "The page cannot be displayed" page.

Probably because you don't have valid values for &srch=
or %prov= yet.

That's what the second part of srchcust would do for you.
It actually used to be in its own separate dialog box IIRC,
so incredibly it looks as if things are still being done to this UI
after all this time!

You probably wouldn't need the ActiveX control to be working
to use the search from the Address bar if that technique interests you.
E.g. probably all that would be required would be to zap the appropriate
values to support both parameters.

As a proof of concept, take that URL and modify it as:

http://auto.search.msn.com/response.asp?MT=SearchTerm&srch=5&prov=gogl&utf8

Then to find out which registry values are used to supply those
parameter values you could Run... RegMon (or ProcMon)


However, a method that PA Bear might show you would avoid
one level of redirection and make the implementation of your
Search from the Address bar more apparent. ; }

And if you wouldn't mind using some customized Address bar search "prefixes",
you could use TweakUI for XP and simplify the implementation even further.
TweakUI (or an old IE5 Web Accessory called Quick Search.exe) enable a user
to customize the SearchURL registry branch. E.g. instead of starting a Search
from the Address bar with just a ? you could use G to invoke a template for a
Google web search (for example).

BTW AFAIK those features are still being carried forward in Vista
for compatibility purposes, although there is no TweakUI for Vista
yet apparently. In that case perhaps Vista users could try to resurrect
the Quick Search.exe tool? <eg> (Or just perform the equivalent
registry changes manually.)

Also note that such search prefixes need not be restricted to invoking
search engine URLs. For example, I have one I call KB which simply
takes a KB article number as a parameter and then plugs it into this
template:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=%s


HTH

Robert
---