Folder icons in Explorer launch "Search" when double-clicked.

[Robbie Hatley]

Greetings, group. I've got (yet another) weird problem with my
Windows 2000, and I'm wondering if anyone here as a clue as to
what's causing it. The problem is, when I double-click folder
icons in the right pane of Windows Explorer, Windows launches
a "Search" window for that folder, whereas my desired behavior
is to open that folder in the right pane of that same Explorer
window. My Explorer has behaved correctly in that regard since
installation several years ago, and only started malfunctioning
about 3 weeks ago, so something has changed, but I don't know
what. Nor can I figure out how to undo it. Any ideas, anyone?

For reference, this is Windows 2000, version 5.0, build 2195,
Service Pack 4.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can solve this mystery!

--
Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
Tustin, CA, USA
email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant

 

[Robbie Hatley]

Yesterday I had written:

Greetings, group. I've got (yet another) weird problem with my
Windows 2000, and I'm wondering if anyone here as a clue as to
what's causing it. The problem is, when I double-click folder
icons in the right pane of Windows Explorer, Windows launches
a "Search" window for that folder, whereas my desired behavior
is to open that folder in the right pane of that same Explorer
window. My Explorer has behaved correctly in that regard since
installation several years ago, and only started malfunctioning
about 3 weeks ago, so something has changed, but I don't know
what. Nor can I figure out how to undo it. Any ideas, anyone?

And all the experts here wrote:

(no reply)

Ok... forcing me to fix my own problem, eh?


I finally did solve the problem. For information, if anyone here
runs across the above problem, one thing that can cause this is,
if some entity (a program, a person, or maybe Windows itself)
ever creates key HKCR\Directory\shell\explore it will cause
problems, because the key HKCR\Folder\shell\explore already
exists, and HKCR\Folder\shell and HKCR\Directory\shell "mirror"
each other; that is, the commands in both are "pooled" together;
so it's important that no command ever appears in BOTH!!! In my
case, I had "explore" in both, and the one Windows was choosing as
default had bogus info. (The correct version is the version that
uses dde, in order to control opening in same window, etc.)
So I just deleted the bogus extra "explore" key and all its
contents. Now "explore" appears only ONCE in my right-click
context menu for folders (it had been appearing duplicated),
and when I double-click folder icons in explorer, the folder
opens in the right pane of that explorer window, intead of
launching a search or folder window, as had been happening.


Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
Tustin, CA, USA
email: lonewolfintj at pacbell dot net
web: home dot pacbell dot net slant earnur slant