After installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1, when you click Start, type a search string in the Instant Search box, and press ENTER, one of the following problems may occur:
- Nothing happens
- Two instances of search window are opened
- You receive the following error:
Fix Permissions for the Search key
Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER
Navigate to the following key:
Ignore the following error message:
Details: Access is denied.
1. Right-click the Search key and choose Permissions…
2. Click Advanced, and select the Owner tab
3. Select Administrators under Change owner to: section
4. Click Apply, OK
5. Back in the Security tab, click Add
6. Type Administrators and press ENTER
7. Select the Allow check box for Full Control permission
8. Click Add, type Users and press ENTER
9. Select the Allow check box for the Read permission
10. Click Add, type SYSTEM and press ENTER
11. Select the Allow check box for Full Control permission
12. Click OK.
If the permissions are correct and the problem still persists, then this may be due to missing association settings. I have created a .reg file that should fix the problem.
Fixing the Search Protocol
1. Download fix_srch_assoc.reg and save it to the Desktop.
2. Right-click on the file and choose Merge.
3. Click Yes when asked for confirmation.
4. Logoff and login back and check if Search work correctly.
Editor’s note: This problem does not occur in every Windows Vista computer with SP1 installed. None of my systems running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 exhibit this behavior.
Last Updated on March 24, 2008
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had the problem that search resulted in nothing … neither programs nor files.
telll users that the problem occurs if you index folders of type “picture”, i.e. trying to display pictures in the start-menu-result-list.
not indexing file contents but only file properties of folder “my pictures” solved the problem.
works for Windows 7 as well
i just applied the registry file