Have you come across a situation where the Windows XP Search Companion window is completely blank, except for the search dog showing up at the bottom of the search pane? You can fix this problem by registering a couple of system DLLs.
If the Search Companion registration is broken, the Search window may be completely blank. In some cases it may default to Windows Classic search (which may work fine) even though the Search Companion is enabled.
Tip: To switch to Classic Search in Explorer, read this article from PCTools Website. Alternately, you can use the Tweak UI PowerToy to switch from Search Companion to Classic Search, and vice versa.
Fixing Windows XP Search Companion User Interface
1. Login as Administrator or equivalent.
2. Click Start, Run. Execute the following commands:
You should see the message DllRegisterServer in <filename.dll> succeeded. for each DLL registered.
Logoff and login back (just in case the changes don’t take effect) and check if the Search Companion User Interface is displayed correctly. If it doesn’t, repair the search assistant components using Srchasst.inf.
Reinstalling the Search Companion using Srchasst.inf
Click Start, Run. Type %systemroot%\inf, and then click OK
Locate the file named SRCHASST.INF, right-click and choose Install. Note that the file extension (.INF) is not shown in Windows Explorer unless the Hide extensions for known file types setting is disabled in Control Panel / Folder Options / View tab.
In the next step, you’ll be asked for the Windows XP CD (to extract msgr3en.dll and other files). Insert your Windows XP CD and point to the i386 folder in the CD. The i386 folder is usually located at the root of the drive (e.g. E:\I386). However, if you’ve installed SP1/SP2 or SP3 separately after installing Windows XP, you need to point to the "%windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386" folder when prompted.
Search Companion is reinstalled now. Note that the above fixes don’t help resolve search index related issues.
Related Posts
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- How to Search for Files Created Between Two Dates in Windows Vista
- Add “MS-KB Lookup” Option to the Right-Click Menu in Internet Explorer
- Add Google Search Option to the Right-Click Menu in Internet Explorer
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Oh man, this solved the issue! THANKS A LOT!
Ramesh – thanks that fixed the problem!
many thanks!!! i’ve got complication from few of my search companion registry which i accidentally deleted…
help and support features won’t work…
windows media player will show errors…
but after i’ve got tips from here and reinstalled my search companion, everythings works just fine!
i’ve searched the net only to find useless tips until i stumble on this site. you’re a computer saver!!!!
This worked. Searched a long time to find it !
I searched for days to find the correct answer, and I found it here!
Excellent, thanks!!!
It was driving me nuts!!
:-)
Thanks! The fix worked great! I got hit by a virus and this got tanked in the cleanup process.
Thank U very much. I was trying to optimize my new aspire one with it’s little cpu . So I was stripping windows including .net framework from microsoft. I think in my haste to downgrade I DQ the files registration. Thank U so much it worked AND I don’t have all that crap slowing my O.S. anymore!!!!!!
hats off!
Spectacular show of knowledge
After XP SP3 upgrade, can’t get any browser nor search engine to return a search other than a blank white page or cannot display results, or weaddress not found…etc seems related to this topic? help?
Tank you very much this was a great help.
I lost this after a restore as well as restore function option.
All good now
BCE