Unable to Search from Browser Address bar & unable to recieve cookies

[frustrated]

OS Windows 2000: App Internet Explorer 6.0 sp1

Can not use Address bar to conduct searches using internet
explorer 6.0 and earlier versions. One possible solution
that I picked up in KB articles was to delete Index.dat
files and have them recreated upon relaunching browser.
Unable to delete index.dat files (get error message that a
process is using file even though I have all apps
closed). Also changed Security settings (uncheck SSl 3.0
& TLS 1.0) but not did not help either. Also noticed that
I am not recieving cookies even though Privacy is set to
low allowing all cookies to be accepted.

I have also reinstalled the application to no avail and do
not know registry well enough to troubleshoot.

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong?

 

[war17]

Go to Tools > Options > Advanced. Scroll down to Search. Make sure "Just go
to the most likely site" is checked.

To delete index.dat, you need to do so in DOS. Boot up with a boot up disk.
Navigate to Content.IE5 folder and delete index.dat.

Check the cookies are enabled. Go to Tools > Options > Privacy > Advanced.
Make sure "Override automatic cookies handling" is uncheck.