Search sidebar ALWAYS present when opening file explorer

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Using WinXP Home. And whenever I open the file explorer the left-side
file search panel always appears and I have to hit the "folders"
button to change it to the tree view.

I've looked in "tools-->folder options" and there's nothing in there it
seems to cause this to happen.
I click the Restore Defaults button, and Apply to All Folders while the
search is gone and the tree view is open, and still, when I open File
Explorer there's the search side-bar.

Is there a registry key for this I can just go in and change?
Thanks for any help!
Liam

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

This problem occurs when you alter the "Drive" / "File Folders" entries via File Types dialog, to add a "Command Prompt here" or "Print Directory" feature for folders. (example)

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=321379
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=321186

Click Start/Run and type this command to fix this problem:
regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

(Courtesy of David Candy)

To fix this manually via registry:

If this problem is seen for Drives:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell
Set (default) to "none" (without ")

If this problem is seen for folders:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell]
Set (default) to "none" (without ")

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


Using WinXP Home. And whenever I open the file explorer the left-side
file search panel always appears and I have to hit the "folders"
button to change it to the tree view.

I've looked in "tools-->folder options" and there's nothing in there it
seems to cause this to happen.
I click the Restore Defaults button, and Apply to All Folders while the
search is gone and the tree view is open, and still, when I open File
Explorer there's the search side-bar.

Is there a registry key for this I can just go in and change?
Thanks for any help!
Liam