Can only change sort order once in search result (Home/SP-1)

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I don’t know what those of you who have been in the Lounge for a long time thinks, but to me it seems like either a question/problem is easy to solve or it is almost impossible to track down. Of course what’s easy to someone might be a overwhelming problem to someone else.

Some days ago I found that if I do a search for files (“Start” Search), for instance *.sys on C:, when I get the result I can sort the order once by clicking on some header (ex. Size), but I can not change the sort by clicking Size again, or any other header. Nothing happens. First I thought, maybe it is many files to sort, better wait some seconds, but no it does not work a second time.

However, if I start Explorer with winkey-E (or StartAll ProgramsAccessories, and click on some drive and select search on toolbar and do the same search, then I can rearrange the result by clicking on the headers as often as I want, and as fast as I can click on them. No problem.

Any help is appreciated.

Regards,

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I’ve not seen this problem myself. I just tried it using the search pane and it seems to work fine, but it will not work if the system continues to search. Are you certain that the search is complete when you try this? Explorer is explorer, whether the search pane is showing or not.

Something else to try: right-click in an empty area in the list of search results and choose Arrange Icons By – Size and see if you can work around it that way.

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Mark,
Thanks for a quick reply. Yes, I do wait until search is complete. This is really confusing. If I, for instance, click the header Name, and nothing happens, and then try your suggestion: right-click choose Arrange Icons by, I can see that it has changed to Name in that menu. But the files are not rearranged!

Yes, Explorer is Explorer, but when you start a search from scratch through Start>Search the “Folder” is Search result, but if I start Explorer and change to Search pane as described earlier the start folder is my selected folder/drive. I don’t know if this has something to do with it.

Still confused.

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I agree, it’s an odd situation. I wonder if reinstalling Search would help? Try this:

• Click Start – Run
• Enter %systemroot%inf in the box and click OK
• Locate the srchasst.inf file
• Right click on the file and choose Install from the menu[/list]This will require you to have your Windows XP CD handy, or the installation files if they are on the hard drive.

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I tried your suggestion, but no it didn’t change anything.
When re-installing, beside XP CD, I also needed my SP-1 CD for the file “srchui.dll”. But since I didn’t know exactly how to extract the file from the service pack file I pointed the installer to WindowsServicePackFilesi386 for that file. As I understand it the files are located in Windowssrchasst.

I have all patches installed, and I don’t know when this problem with Search happened, so I can not relate it to any particular update. Also, if there was any such problem there would be some talk about it in MS groups?

And even more confusing (?): if I for instance do a search via StartSearch for *.xls or *.doc, the result is presented in Tiles view (I think it’s called that in English versions of XP), but if I do another search for *.txt or anything else it’s showed in Details view. Of course when a result is shown I can always change the view, but I have never before seen the view being changed when searching for another type of file.

Regards,

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You will not believe this. This is one true “believe it or not”.

Before I go any further I will describe how I have “configured” Search. I use “Advanced search options”, I include “System folders” and “Hidden files and folders” and “Subfolders”. Other than that I normally don’t spec. any certain file size or type.

I thought I had solved it. This is what I did:
After a reboot I selected Start > Search and typed *.sys (as an example) selected drive C and clicked Search. In the search result I clicked on one heading to sort the files. After that I clicked another heading, and as described before, nothing happened.

I then selected the Folder pane by clicking on Folders on the toolbar. I choose a folder at random on another drive and sorted the files in details view, here it worked several times. But for several folders explorer had selected another view of the files, or used Show in groups, that I certainly don’t use for those folders.

After that I went back to Search result (everything in same window), selected Search pane and did another search. This time I could rearrange sort order!

Happy I closed the window. I selected Start > My computer and found that the view has been rearranged. It shows the drives in detail view (sometimes as I repeat this also grouped).
I always use View: Tiles, Arrange by Type, Show in group.

I rearranged the view of My computer to my preferences. I then selected Start > Search and did another search for test (as above). Nope, I can not rearrange sort order. Dang. If I follow the steps above (from Search select Folders, rearrange another folder and go back) I can rearrange any search result and start a new search as it seems. And more stunning: if I close search window (explorer) and go back to My
computer via Start, it has now changed back to details view!

This time, if don’t change it back (the view of My computer), I can rearrange search result as often as I want! I have tried this three times or more and could repeat the result, but now as I am writing this of course it does not work either …

Reply | Quote

Still have not found any solution. Could post a longer description of my test result, but there does not seem to be any clues here.
– If I do a search: it changes the view of My Computer and I can not change sort order more than once in search result.
– If I manage to get it working, as described, the view of My Computer changes one more time.
– If I change the view of My Computer back (to the way I want); sort in search result only works one time.

It seems like this is my little personal hell. There has been an old bug in XP with sort order in dialogs, there are discussions all over the Net, but nothing like my problem. And especially since I didn’t like the thought of a web browser so integrated with the OS. Here we are with a situation; people asking every now and then how to get the different views in explorer to stick, and problems with security settings for different zones etc. Explorer involves too many settings that can go wrong.

Reply | Quote

Still have not found any solution. Could post a longer description of my test result, but there does not seem to be any clues here.
– If I do a search: it changes the view of My Computer and I can not change sort order more than once in search result.
– If I manage to get it working, as described, the view of My Computer changes one more time.
– If I change the view of My Computer back (to the way I want); sort in search result only works one time.

It seems like this is my little personal hell. There has been an old bug in XP with sort order in dialogs, there are discussions all over the Net, but nothing like my problem. And especially since I didn’t like the thought of a web browser so integrated with the OS. Here we are with a situation; people asking every now and then how to get the different views in explorer to stick, and problems with security settings for different zones etc. Explorer involves too many settings that can go wrong.

Reply | Quote

You will not believe this. This is one true “believe it or not”.

Before I go any further I will describe how I have “configured” Search. I use “Advanced search options”, I include “System folders” and “Hidden files and folders” and “Subfolders”. Other than that I normally don’t spec. any certain file size or type.

I thought I had solved it. This is what I did:
After a reboot I selected Start > Search and typed *.sys (as an example) selected drive C and clicked Search. In the search result I clicked on one heading to sort the files. After that I clicked another heading, and as described before, nothing happened.

I then selected the Folder pane by clicking on Folders on the toolbar. I choose a folder at random on another drive and sorted the files in details view, here it worked several times. But for several folders explorer had selected another view of the files, or used Show in groups, that I certainly don’t use for those folders.

After that I went back to Search result (everything in same window), selected Search pane and did another search. This time I could rearrange sort order!

Happy I closed the window. I selected Start > My computer and found that the view has been rearranged. It shows the drives in detail view (sometimes as I repeat this also grouped).
I always use View: Tiles, Arrange by Type, Show in group.

I rearranged the view of My computer to my preferences. I then selected Start > Search and did another search for test (as above). Nope, I can not rearrange sort order. Dang. If I follow the steps above (from Search select Folders, rearrange another folder and go back) I can rearrange any search result and start a new search as it seems. And more stunning: if I close search window (explorer) and go back to My
computer via Start, it has now changed back to details view!

This time, if don’t change it back (the view of My computer), I can rearrange search result as often as I want! I have tried this three times or more and could repeat the result, but now as I am writing this of course it does not work either …

Reply | Quote

I tried your suggestion, but no it didn’t change anything.
When re-installing, beside XP CD, I also needed my SP-1 CD for the file “srchui.dll”. But since I didn’t know exactly how to extract the file from the service pack file I pointed the installer to WindowsServicePackFilesi386 for that file. As I understand it the files are located in Windowssrchasst.

I have all patches installed, and I don’t know when this problem with Search happened, so I can not relate it to any particular update. Also, if there was any such problem there would be some talk about it in MS groups?

And even more confusing (?): if I for instance do a search via StartSearch for *.xls or *.doc, the result is presented in Tiles view (I think it’s called that in English versions of XP), but if I do another search for *.txt or anything else it’s showed in Details view. Of course when a result is shown I can always change the view, but I have never before seen the view being changed when searching for another type of file.

Regards,

Reply | Quote

I agree, it’s an odd situation. I wonder if reinstalling Search would help? Try this:

• Click Start – Run
• Enter %systemroot%inf in the box and click OK
• Locate the srchasst.inf file
• Right click on the file and choose Install from the menu[/list]This will require you to have your Windows XP CD handy, or the installation files if they are on the hard drive.

Reply | Quote

Mark,
Thanks for a quick reply. Yes, I do wait until search is complete. This is really confusing. If I, for instance, click the header Name, and nothing happens, and then try your suggestion: right-click choose Arrange Icons by, I can see that it has changed to Name in that menu. But the files are not rearranged!

Yes, Explorer is Explorer, but when you start a search from scratch through Start>Search the “Folder” is Search result, but if I start Explorer and change to Search pane as described earlier the start folder is my selected folder/drive. I don’t know if this has something to do with it.

Still confused.

Reply | Quote

I’ve not seen this problem myself. I just tried it using the search pane and it seems to work fine, but it will not work if the system continues to search. Are you certain that the search is complete when you try this? Explorer is explorer, whether the search pane is showing or not.

Something else to try: right-click in an empty area in the list of search results and choose Arrange Icons By – Size and see if you can work around it that way.

Reply | Quote