Frustrating Search Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil Carroll
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Phil Carroll

Search is partially broken on my XP pro computer. Specifically:

a) Start/Search does nothing. No message. No event posted. Nada. Zip.
b) Right click/Search... in Windows explorer same result.
c) Clicking Search icon in explorer works as expected, comes up with context search screen.

All of the above only under some login IDs!

Under other IDs, all methods of launching search still work. This is totally baffling. I tried this in Start /
Run:
rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %systemroot%\inf\srchasst.inf
Seems to do its install, but no change in behavior.

This all happened sometime this week. Can't relate the failures to any specific event. This is drving me
nuts. On most days, I do at least a dozen right-click context searches. I suppose I will eventually be
retrained to click the stupid icon. Until that mysteriously stops working too. Any suggestions anyone?

Phil
 
Phil Carroll said:
Search is partially broken on my XP pro computer. Specifically:
Click to expand...
a) Start/Search does nothing. No message. No event posted. Nada. Zip.
b) Right click/Search... in Windows explorer same result.
c) Clicking Search icon in explorer works as expected, comes up with context search screen.
Click to expand...
All of the above only under some login IDs!
Click to expand...

Symptom B, but C working ok, can result from Zone Alarm.

Do you get "a problem occured communicating the command to the program"
error message, or just nothing. if the message then it's ZA. to verify
shut it down temporarily and try right-click (or system menu) search. If
it works then it is ZA. Add 0.0.0.0 and 127.0.0.1 to the trusted zone,
and make sure windows explorer has "allow" checked for access to trusted
zone.

If you get no erro message, then check Kelly's site for the standard
"search does not work" fix (it re-registers the search dll). See

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
 
I don't have Zone Alarm, so that isn't it.

There is no message, and no visible drive activity. There is no event posted in the event log. No
activity at all.

I'm not sure which of the dozens of search tweaks you are suggesting to apply. None of the
search-related problems seems to fit my situation. If you mean the standard "srchasst.inf" search
reinstall, then I've "been there, done that".

Possibly related to the search problem (possibly not) is that I can no longer access the Logical
Disk Manager from this login. I get the message:
"You do not have access rights to Logical Disk Manager..."

Phil Carroll
 
I discovered that I also did not have access to Logical Disk Manager for the same IDs that
had search problems. That turned out to be a DCOM security settings issue. (Configuring
for SureSync)

When I fixed that problem and rebooted, search also worked. I am guessing this may be
related to the fact that my folders are configured to display system files.

Why did it work from the icon? Who cares?

Serendipitosly, this problem led me to discover Agent Ransack. :-)

Phil Carroll
 
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