<b>xp search companion side bar is empty</b>

[mitch88]

I have loaded xp pro and sometime a few days later the entire
side bar (with the dog)is blank. No text, no dog, nothing.....
<U>It is *not* closed</u>...it is open buy has no content.
This new territory for me, so I have no idea....

Here are the answers that I got that do NOT work.

all you have to do to get the search companion back is when you open search just press ctrl+e and it will come back
***AND***
&quot;Display the full path in the Address Bar&quot;, this is an option under Control Panel/ Folder Options/ View. Specifies that the complete path of the open file or folder is displayed in the address bar of the window.

Search Assistant Problem.

Log on to the computer by using an account with administrator permissions.

Click Start, click Run, type %systemroot%\inf, and then click OK.
Locate the Srchasst.inf file.
Right-click the Srchasst.inf file, and then click Install. This reinstalls the files that Search Companion uses.

You may need your Windows XP CD-ROM to finish installing Search Companion.

Thanks for any ideas

 

[linney]

Try this link with a view to fixing your search engine.

http://www.dougknox.com/

Click on WIN XP FIXES on the left of the page and look for &quot;Win XP Search Problems&quot;.


Some general things to try.

See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Windows.

Try Safe Mode (Do you have this problem in Safe Mode?).

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

 

[mitch88]

OK,thanks..
I tried each thing;
The 1st 2 caused no change,
The 3rd &quot;In-Place Upgrade&quot; would not accept the
correct CD key???
I even found an app that would read my key from the reg.
just in case I had entered it wrong...
it was the correct key but the reinstall screen said it was invalid...
?I am confused....

thanks again

mitch

 

[linney]

On one install I had that message but overcame it by re-entering the key again after changing to a backup copy of my install CD. Perhaps it is as simple as a dirty CD or CD-ROM. Do you have a cleaning disk for your CD-ROM.?

If you want you could download the free memory testing program from here and test your Ram to make sure everything in that area is correct.

http://www.memtest86.com