Search Function Stopped Working!

[A Baffled User]

Using Windows XP Home with whatever service packs have come out on an HP
Pavilion notebook with 512 MB RAM. I've just tried to search for files that
absolutely exist on my computer, using their exact file names, and the
search lasts a fraction of a second and turns up no files. Search has been
working fine up till now.

So I went to the Microsoft site and found and article in the Knowledge Base
according to which this can happen when you remove Office or upgrade from
Office 2000 to Office XP. I have been using my Office 2000 programs with no
problems ever since I got this computer, three years ago. Two or three days
ago, I did uninstall and reinstall one program, Outlook, from the Office
2000 CD. So maybe that's the problem. But here's what Microsoft (see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312510/en-us) says to do to solve the
problem:

To work around this issue, reregister the Offfilt.dll file. To do this,
follow these steps: 1. Click Start and then click Run.
2. Browse to the Windows\System32 folder.
3. In the File name box, type:
regsvr32 offfilt.dll


When I type "regsvr32 offfilt.dll" into the File name box as instructed, I
get the message that there's no such file. I'm not surprised, given that
there's a blank space between "regsvr32" and "offfilt.dll," but how can I
get Search working again?

Thanks in advance!

Joan

 

[FrankV]

Go to Microsoft Office in add-remove, click it and then click the repair
button. That might fix it.

Frank

 

[Xandros]

If this is a very recent problem why not System Restore to revert back to a
point just prior to the problem occurring. Click the Start button and go to
Help & Support->Pick a task->System Restore link. Follow the onscreen prompt
to restore your system. This is non destructive.

 

[A Baffled User]

I thought that trying to use System Restore was a great idea. So I went to
that program, and the only restore point available was at 6:22 p.m.
today--i.e., long after the problem surfaced. When I tried to back up from
November to October to find more restore points, I couldn't. I do not have
System Restore turned off. This is just getting worse and worse!

Joan

 

[Chuck]

You might open C:\WINDOWS\system32 and see if it is there.
My system shows version 2002.5.30.0 with winXP SP1+ installed, and Office XP
SP3

 

[A Baffled User]

I just tried this. Add-Remove repaired Office successfully, but Search still doesn't work. Oddly, I was able to successfully find a couple folders, rather than individual files, using Search, but the minute I try to Search a Word doc, say, or a JPG file, the results come back immediately: "Search is complete. There are no results to display.".

 

[A Baffled User]

Do you mean, "see if regsvr32 offfilt.dll is there"? It's not. There's a
regsvr32.exe, but that's it.