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Fix Search association settings in Vista

March 23rd, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

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:
This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Associations control panel.

FIX PERMISSIONS FOR THE SEARCH KEY

Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER

Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Search

Ignore the following error message:

An error is preventing this key from being opened.
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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There Are 5 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by EXP on 9 April 2008:

    Thanks for this. I have no idea why the registry locks certain keys and does not give access. I’ve had this issue with flash, microsoft’s silverlight, and others. Still trying to figure out the reason why it happens. But thank you for figuring out what key it is!

  2. Comment by m1d on 9 April 2008:

    I had to actually do surgery on your .reg since it gave me an access problem every time i tried merging it into my system. I had to repeat steps 1-11 on all registry directories listed in the .reg. Then after that I tried once again, the .reg got merged, tried WinKey+F and whoah! It worked! Thanks a lot for writing this

  3. Comment by Stuart Perkins on 13 April 2008:

    Thanks for this, my search is working again. Yipee!!! The first section worked fine for me, I didn’t need to use the reg file. Thanks again

  4. Comment by Carel Schotborgh on 18 April 2008:

    Uhmmm acces denied for both

  5. Comment by Carel on 20 April 2008:

    OMG….nothing works. I did what was writen above no change then i tried to merge the reg file and gues what….cannot import Error accessing the registry…..Microcrap i call it now. SP1 brings more trouble then fixes….Ofcrouse it needs time but this is rediculous…

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