Screensave and help functions don't work

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert Kulp
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Robert Kulp

I am running XP Home Edition and recently my screensaver doesn't execute.
Also the Search function has stopped working.

Bob
 
Robert Kulp said:
I am running XP Home Edition and recently my screensaver doesn't execute.
Also the Search function has stopped working.

Bob
Click to expand...

The screensaver functionality might be restored if you use these commands
(have your XP CD ready, it will probably be needed):
Start|Run
cmd
sfc /purgecache
sfc /scannow
exit

The Help problem can be complicated. If you go to the Microsoft home page,
does it look the same as it does on another computer? Is it missing the
Microsoft logo at the top left? If the logo is missing, I've spent DAYS with
MS on the phone over that problem and never got a solution and instead had
to do a repair reinstallation of Windows. That case had something to do with
ActiveX corruption but Microsoft never managed to find the cause. But then,
in all those DAYS of effort, not once did MS ever ask me to extract a file
on the CD for replacement purposes, either (which seems to say a lot about
MS technical help competence).
 
Thanks for the reply. The Screensaver has mysteriously started to work
again. The Search function is still inoperable. If I find an answer I will
post it.

Bob
 
Ok, you didn't indicate if you had the kind of "logo" problem or not. If so,
the following will not help because of it being an ActiveX problem (and Help
and Support uses IE for its display). You can try re-installing Help and
Support ... note that some folders will be deleted. You might want to first
make a copy of the "pchealth" folder in case something goes wrong and you
need to put it all back (system restore will not put it back).

1. Quit Help and Support Center, if it's open.
2. Click Start > Run. Type "cmd" (without the quotation marks) and then
click OK.
3. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and then press
Enter after each line:
cd /d %systemroot%\pchealth\helpctr
rd /s /q packagestore
cd binaries
start /w helpsvc /svchost netsvcs /regserver /install

If that doesn't do it you could try a complete reinstall (not a repair) of
IE. This is an extensive procedure, let me know if you want to try it.
 
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