Windows Search - results not displayed (correctly)

[Analphabet]

After fixing the Error-2147218141-problem by creating gathrprm.txt and
schema.txt search results are displayed only as "empty" columns (no filename,
icon for "unknown document type").

Any idea what went wrong?
(Vista Ultimate 32bit German)

 

[Mr. Arnold]

After fixing the Error-2147218141-problem by creating gathrprm.txt and
schema.txt search results are displayed only as "empty" columns (no
filename,
icon for "unknown document type").

Any idea what went wrong?
(Vista Ultimate 32bit German)

That error code could have applied to anything. What was the error message,
and where is this fix you're talking about?

 

[Analphabet]

The error message was:
"Windows could not start the Windows Search on Local Computer. For more
information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft
service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code
-2147218141."

I was referring to one of several threads like this one:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...d76d1a-10a3-49ba-9544-fa8fc7be8dc1&sloc=en-us

Now, desktop search is running and indexing files, but search results are
not desplayed correctly.

 

[Mr. Arnold]

The error message was:
"Windows could not start the Windows Search on Local Computer. For more
information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft
service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error
code
-2147218141."

I was referring to one of several threads like this one:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...d76d1a-10a3-49ba-9544-fa8fc7be8dc1&sloc=en-us

Now, desktop search is running and indexing files, but search results are
not desplayed correctly.

Is it that the results are not showing some kind of icon type next to a
file or the search is not finding the file you're looking for?

 

[Analphabet]

It seems that the search is finding files. If I enter different keywords,
Windoes Search finds a different number of ellements. Reducing the search to
"e-mail" or "documents" reduces the number of elements.

The problem is: every single result is displayed as a "white" icon (like a
file that is not associated with any application). I can't see any filename,
filesize or any other file attribute. Doubleclicking on one of the results
does not have any effect.

Maybe I've got a problem with msscolmn.txt. It's size is still 0 bytes.
(located in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Config). in the registry
(HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows search) I found out, that
'DefaultColumnFile' pointed to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Config instead
of ...Search\DATA\Config. I changed this without any results.

Just to make sure I made no mistakes, my current file strucure:
C:\Program\Data\Microsoft\Search\Data\
.... Application
.... Config (containing msscolmn.txt, gathrpm.txt and schema.txt)
.... Temp

The directory "application" contains a single subdirectory "Windows" with
sub-sub-directrories "Config", "GatherLogs", Projects" and several files
(windows.edb, MSS00nnn.log etc).

THX for your feedback so far!

 

[Mr. Arnold]

It seems that the search is finding files. If I enter different keywords,
Windoes Search finds a different number of ellements. Reducing the search
to
"e-mail" or "documents" reduces the number of elements.

The problem is: every single result is displayed as a "white" icon (like a
file that is not associated with any application). I can't see any
filename,
filesize or any other file attribute. Doubleclicking on one of the results
does not have any effect.

Maybe I've got a problem with msscolmn.txt. It's size is still 0 bytes.
(located in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Config). in the registry
(HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows search) I found out, that
'DefaultColumnFile' pointed to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Config
instead
of ...Search\DATA\Config. I changed this without any results.

Just to make sure I made no mistakes, my current file strucure:
C:\Program\Data\Microsoft\Search\Data\
... Application
... Config (containing msscolmn.txt, gathrpm.txt and schema.txt)
... Temp

The directory "application" contains a single subdirectory "Windows" with
sub-sub-directrories "Config", "GatherLogs", Projects" and several files
(windows.edb, MSS00nnn.log etc).

THX for your feedback so far!

Well, about the only thing about this that I can say is if it's not broke
then don't fix. It does its major function of finding what you want. So, it
doesn't have the icons that should be there. To be honest, I would just
move on.

 

[Analphabet]

Well, it definitely IS broke!
What is the value of a list with 250 emty entries, showing not a single
filename and beeing not able to open any file? To be honest, too: knowing
that there must be 250 files anywhere on my comupter containing a certain
keyword and beeing not able to open them, is not what I expect a search
engine to do. It is as useful as if I asked you, if you know what the time is
and you're answering, "yes".

 

[Mr. Arnold]

Well, it definitely IS broke!
What is the value of a list with 250 emty entries, showing not a single
filename and beeing not able to open any file? To be honest, too: knowing
that there must be 250 files anywhere on my comupter containing a certain
keyword and beeing not able to open them, is not what I expect a search
engine to do. It is as useful as if I asked you, if you know what the time
is
and you're answering, "yes".

Well, if you have a retail version on the Vista DVD, then you can restore
back to a previous point of the O/S before this started happening to see if
that corrects the problem

You also also do an upgrade over the top of the existing O/S with the
install DVD that will lay the O?S back down, but it will leave your existing
applications as is and wont hurt them, to see if that will correct the
problem

 

[Analphabet]

I installed Vista (retail) completely new begin of October (2nd complete new
installation. Desktop search did not work from the beginning (I verified this
by looking through the event logs: Desktop Search error entries appear from
the first day of installation). Now I found time to work on this problem
(missing 'config'-directory, ...). So there is no previous point where I
could restore to.

Perhaps it would help me, If I knew how a correct installed Desktop search
looks like. Is it correct, that the size of gathrprm.txt, schema.txt and
msscolmn.txt is 0 byte?

THX!