Explorer System Object Context Menu Search Option Failure

[R. Fodor]

In Windows Explorer's left side tree/folder pane, when I
right-mouse-click on a system object such as a drive
(e.g., C or any folder (My Documents, Shared Documents,
etc.) and select the "Search" option from the context
menu, I get an error message stating, "There was a problem
sending the command to the program." The same error
message is given when, in "My Computer", I do the same
thing on a system object shown in the right
side "contents" pane. The context menu's Search option
envoked on an object (folder) in Explorer's right side
contents pane also fails. Why? What command is not being
properly sent to what program exactly that causes this
error, and how can I fix this, please?

Note that all other attempts to bring up the Search
Companion for a selected system object work properly,
i.e., F3, Ctrl-F, Ctrl-E, the toolbar's search magnifying
glass icon or the "Search" option on the Start menu;
however, if I select a folder in Explorer's right side
contents pane and envoke "Search" with something other
than the context menu's "Search" option (e.g., F3), the
Search Companion's "Look In" field gets populated with the
object's *parent*! (e.g, select "Program Files"
and "SYSTEM (C" is shown in the Look In field, or
select "System32" from C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 and "Windows"
is shown in the Look In field!) The user account has
administrator rights, and this behavior is the same
regardless of which logged in user tries this.

The Control Panel-Folder Options-File Type-Advanced
for "Drive" lists the "find" action, but the option to
edit it isn't shown, so I don't know what exactly is going
on when I select the context menu's "Search" (find) option.

This first started happening intermittently, but now it
happens each and every time. I have searched the MS KB
for the error message with no luck.

Any ideas or help, PLEASE???!!!! I'm desperate, and this
is driving me nuts! Is there anything I should expect to
find in the registry that might be missing (for example,
under the CLSID/Drive key)?

Thanks to all!

Compaq 2701US laptop
XP SP1 with all updates installed
512Mb RAM
1 physical disk partitioned into 3 logical drives: system
(C, DATA (D and TEMP (E
What am I forgetting to add here? (It's 5:00a.m. as I
write this).

P.S.: I wasn't sure where else to post this (through the
MS KB newsgroup access), so it's here in "General." Any
suggestions for other groups into which this should be
posted? Thanks again!

 

[R. Fodor]

Here: After searching for hours, I have found the answer
to my own question, here posted for anyone else that has
encountered this problem. Thanks to "Ramesh"
<sramesh2k@REMOV_NOSPAM.hotmail.com> for the
enlightenment. The only thing I now don't understand is
*WHY* I have to give Windows Explorer access to the
internet to make this work: what if I don't want to give
Explorer access to the internet? Is there a workaround
for this?


Here is Ramesh's response along with the original
questions posted earlier:


SunRay,

If you are using ZoneAlarm, allow access to Windows
Explorer. If this does not help, uninstall and reinstall
the ZoneAlarm application.

--
Ramesh - Microsoft MVP
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k

-------------------------------------------
Computer viruses: description, prevention, and recovery:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=129972
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message I recently noticed that when trying to right click search
from explorer I get this msg "There is a problem sending
the command to the program". But going from the start
menu and searching I can do that. What is causing this
problem I recall from previous explore that is has worked
but now this problem came up. I have XP pro SP1 with
latest patches.


RFodor's original message: