Search Funtion not working (Windows XP – SP1)

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I have a User who called in saying his search funtion is not working. I was able to duplicate the error. I Rt-Click on START and click on the SEARCH button. Then I put a file name down and in less than a second, it says, File Not Found. I tried it on local drives as well as network drives.

Any clues??

Thanks

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What are the search criteria, and what locations are you searching?

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What are the search criteria, and what locations are you searching?

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Regular files are being searched.

Resume.doc
*.exe
jancalendar

And I am searching on the Root of C: or like the root of a share drive; G:smithpte$

Same thing.

No files found

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Is the Search Subfolder box checked under “More Advanced Options”?

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Is the Search Subfolder box checked under “More Advanced Options”?

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Regular files are being searched.

Resume.doc
*.exe
jancalendar

And I am searching on the Root of C: or like the root of a share drive; G:smithpte$

Same thing.

No files found

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By default, search does not look inside hidden folders, which causes search to bypass many important locations. There is a checkbox for this under the search options. Does that help?

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By default, search does not look inside hidden folders, which causes search to bypass many important locations. There is a checkbox for this under the search options. Does that help?

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When you Rclick on start >search, the default location to look is “start menu”, so it doesn’t take long to search through that. As Mark said, refine your search criteria to look in your HD’s and also include “hidden files” as Jefferson mentioned.

Bob

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Sorry I thought I was being clear. I am searching the WHOLE C: DRIVE. All sub folders…… all hidden files. So now what?

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Sorry I thought I was being clear. I am searching the WHOLE C: DRIVE. All sub folders…… all hidden files. So now what?

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Well, either the file doesn’t exist, or Windows is not showing it to you… try the View tab of Windows Explorer’s Folder Options:

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I guess I need to MORE clear. The files I am searching for exists. If I browse manually I see all the files. Nothing is hidden. It is there, plain as day.

If you were to diagnose this problem, you would do all that was mentioned. Then you would search for a file that does exist. This is exactly what I have done. File does not come up in search mode. But it is there in the Windows Explorer screen,

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Are these files to which you or the searcher have access? Can you actually open them?

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Yes. The EU is the create and has no problems opening files on his PC. Just searching for them. He can work fine on PC except for the Search Function. I’m pretty sure I logged in as Administrator and tried it and it did not work either.

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There has been a lot written on XP websites and it has become common knowledge that Search is far from perfect in Windows XP–there are even websites devoted to this with fixes. You might take a look at

319949: Error Message: “A File That Is Required to Run Search Companion Cannot Be Found”

I know your friend isn’t getting that error message, but scroll down the KB to see Method 3: Reinstall the Search Companion Files and also note the hotfix.

Also take a look at

Kelly’s A-Z>”Search Doesn’t Work”

You may find some helpful fixes and suggestions in this article.

SMBP

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There has been a lot written on XP websites and it has become common knowledge that Search is far from perfect in Windows XP–there are even websites devoted to this with fixes. You might take a look at

319949: Error Message: “A File That Is Required to Run Search Companion Cannot Be Found”

I know your friend isn’t getting that error message, but scroll down the KB to see Method 3: Reinstall the Search Companion Files and also note the hotfix.

Also take a look at

Kelly’s A-Z>”Search Doesn’t Work”

You may find some helpful fixes and suggestions in this article.

SMBP

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Does Windows Search use the Indexing (formerly known as Fast Find) service? I wonder whether the volume index has become corrupted somehow. I’m not sure how to clear that up (maybe it’s covered in SMBP’s link to Kelly’s site, which I’ve never visited), but it’s the only other way I can see a disconnect between the search dialog and reality.

Try this: At the bottom of the “What do you want to search for?” list, click Change preferences and then try the second option, which on mine is labeled Without Indexing Service. Does tinkering here make any difference?

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Windows Search uses indexing, and a frequent XP tip to speed search is to turn off indexing. Woody says there are two schools of thought and to try it. I find to turn it off makes XP run faster so I keep it off–and rarely have to use Search. I thought that Microsoft Find Fast (Indexing) was a feature introduced by Office 95, in Office 97 that a lot of people nicknamed “Find Slow.” I don’t know about Office 2000 on. On large drives it often slows things up while creating an index and there is a regedit for this that delays indexing and minimizes system resource use and increases performance. Woody’s tip is that to search for an Office document you can use Word or Excel, or Outlook to search for email messages, but that Word is the fastest, and to use Word to search for HTML or .txt files. From these MSKB’s I get the idea that Find Fast isn’t in Office XP or 2003.

307817: OFFXP: Error Message After You Install Office XP: Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Runtime Error!

826515: Overview of the Search Feature in Office 2003

I don’t think the Find Fast feature was in Windows, but it may be very closely or not related to Indexing–I don’t know about that architecture. In Windows XP, NTFS systems but not FAT, a record is kept of all files on the hard disk to speed searches. The downside to this is that Windows has to index all files, which slows down normal file commands like open, close. Most people recommend that if you don’t do a lot of searches, to turn it off and this defnitely speeds up XP. I find by using the View>Show in Groups feature in XP and having all my files arranged with a details alphabetical view except for downloads, I rarely have to use the search feature, so I turn it off.

Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services>Turn off Indexing Service or runbox>”services.msc.” I don’t know if you can fully turn off indexing service from the search feature. By default it’s set to manual, but when you do a search you get the question of turning it on,

You should check out Kelly’s site–I think you’ll find the tweaks section interesting and the A>Z pretty well done.

SMBP

Reply | Quote

Windows Search uses indexing, and a frequent XP tip to speed search is to turn off indexing. Woody says there are two schools of thought and to try it. I find to turn it off makes XP run faster so I keep it off–and rarely have to use Search. I thought that Microsoft Find Fast (Indexing) was a feature introduced by Office 95, in Office 97 that a lot of people nicknamed “Find Slow.” I don’t know about Office 2000 on. On large drives it often slows things up while creating an index and there is a regedit for this that delays indexing and minimizes system resource use and increases performance. Woody’s tip is that to search for an Office document you can use Word or Excel, or Outlook to search for email messages, but that Word is the fastest, and to use Word to search for HTML or .txt files. From these MSKB’s I get the idea that Find Fast isn’t in Office XP or 2003.

307817: OFFXP: Error Message After You Install Office XP: Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Runtime Error!

826515: Overview of the Search Feature in Office 2003

I don’t think the Find Fast feature was in Windows, but it may be very closely or not related to Indexing–I don’t know about that architecture. In Windows XP, NTFS systems but not FAT, a record is kept of all files on the hard disk to speed searches. The downside to this is that Windows has to index all files, which slows down normal file commands like open, close. Most people recommend that if you don’t do a lot of searches, to turn it off and this defnitely speeds up XP. I find by using the View>Show in Groups feature in XP and having all my files arranged with a details alphabetical view except for downloads, I rarely have to use the search feature, so I turn it off.

Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services>Turn off Indexing Service or runbox>”services.msc.” I don’t know if you can fully turn off indexing service from the search feature. By default it’s set to manual, but when you do a search you get the question of turning it on,

You should check out Kelly’s site–I think you’ll find the tweaks section interesting and the A>Z pretty well done.

SMBP

Reply | Quote

Does Windows Search use the Indexing (formerly known as Fast Find) service? I wonder whether the volume index has become corrupted somehow. I’m not sure how to clear that up (maybe it’s covered in SMBP’s link to Kelly’s site, which I’ve never visited), but it’s the only other way I can see a disconnect between the search dialog and reality.

Try this: At the bottom of the “What do you want to search for?” list, click Change preferences and then try the second option, which on mine is labeled Without Indexing Service. Does tinkering here make any difference?

Reply | Quote

Yes. The EU is the create and has no problems opening files on his PC. Just searching for them. He can work fine on PC except for the Search Function. I’m pretty sure I logged in as Administrator and tried it and it did not work either.

Reply | Quote

Are these files to which you or the searcher have access? Can you actually open them?

Reply | Quote

If these files are in some other account “My Documents”, then they may be hidden from the account that is searching for them.

You stated that you can work your way to these files by using Windows Explorer, give us the FULL path to the files, then we can see where they are located and may be able to help you more.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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If these files are in some other account “My Documents”, then they may be hidden from the account that is searching for them.

You stated that you can work your way to these files by using Windows Explorer, give us the FULL path to the files, then we can see where they are located and may be able to help you more.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I guess I need to MORE clear. The files I am searching for exists. If I browse manually I see all the files. Nothing is hidden. It is there, plain as day.

If you were to diagnose this problem, you would do all that was mentioned. Then you would search for a file that does exist. This is exactly what I have done. File does not come up in search mode. But it is there in the Windows Explorer screen,

Reply | Quote

Well, either the file doesn’t exist, or Windows is not showing it to you… try the View tab of Windows Explorer’s Folder Options:

Reply | Quote

When you Rclick on start >search, the default location to look is “start menu”, so it doesn’t take long to search through that. As Mark said, refine your search criteria to look in your HD’s and also include “hidden files” as Jefferson mentioned.

Bob

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