Strange Search Behaviour

[fourtyseven]

Hi
We're running XP pro at work. Some of our users have limited rights and others have local admin rights. I'm not sure what limitations have been placed on the limited users, but I know they are not able to install new apps, change registry values, etc.

Anyways, some of our users have been complaining about a weird problem with their windows search. They browse to the directory that they want to search using explorer, and then they click the search button at the top.

On my machine (i have local admin rights), this brings up a panel on the left side of the screen with three text boxes. The top one for all or part of the filename, the second for a word or phrase in the file, and the third box for the directory to look in. On my machine, the third box ("Look In") is automatically populated with whatever my current directory is.

However, on some machines, this "Look In" box is coming up blank, no matter what directory you are in. The user then has to click "Other Search Options", and then select "All Files and Folders" on the next screen, which then returns them to the previous screen, this time with the "Look In" box populated with the current directory. It would appear to me that only users with limited rights are having this problem.

If anyone knows what might be causing this, I would really appreciate any info.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[linney]

A similar problem described here

http://forums.techguy.org/t242526.html

and here

http://forums.techguy.org/archive/index.php/t-228377.html

Cause of problem is
Tools..folder options..general, you see either
* Show common task in folders or
* Use windows classic folders


if you choose the former then the browse option is there.
if you choose the latter then it vanishes.
This problem even exists in Win XP sp2 -currently build 2600"

I saw the above in this Google thread -

http://groups.google.com/group/alt....wse+search+xp+problem&rnum=5#9b0456df7517f8bd

You can see what else you can dig up if you like.

http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q="look+in"+OR+browse+search+xp+problem&qt_s=Search

http://www.google.com/search?q="look+in"+OR+browse+search+xp+problem&qt_s=Search&sa=N&tab=gw

 

[fourtyseven]

thx for the info linney

that seems to be close to the problem my client is having, but not exactly. she has the browse function there, but what is happening is that the "Find In" text box isn't being filled in correctly when you browse to a folder on your drive and then click search. It's just showing up blank. You can open the drop down list box and make selections or browse to a folder that way, but you can't just browse to a folder in the first place and then open search and have it autofill the Look In box with your current directory. She is currently fixing this by browsing to a folder, clicking search, clicking back, and then clicking "All files and folders", at which point the Find In box gets filled in with the currently directory info.

Doesn't seem like its a big deal, just another strange Windows bug that annoys random people.

thx again =)

 

[bcastner]

But they would need to enable the ability to change registry values to fix this issue.

Here are the registry values changed when you choose options under Search:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

"SearchSystemDirs"=dword:00000001
"SearchHidden"=dword:00000001
"IncludeSubFolders"=dword:00000001
"CaseSensitive"=dword:00000000

Note: dword:00000000 Disables; dword:00000001 Enables

What I would do is to push a CMD script with a Runas wrapper out to the clients. It only needs to be run once.

You need to Download "Subinacl.exe" from Microsoft and make it accessible on an existing Network Share. For this example I will use as my dummy network share \\My_server\My_share

Direct download of SUBINACL.EXE:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8ba3e56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b

RunAs "wrapper" for following .CMD script to hide Administrator username and password, and add RunAs permissions. By Tek-tips Forum member Greg Palmer:

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk/software/runasuser.asp

; search_perms.CMD

@echo off

; Copy subinacls for future use

COPY \\My_server\My_share\subinacl.exe C:\

; now change the permissions

C:\subinacl.exe /verbose /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ /grant=everyone=f

; We are done
EXIT

Use Greg Palmers RunAsUser wrapper on the .CMD script above. Then send the wrapped "search_perms.cmd" file in an email to your users or distribute it some other way.




Users Helping Users

 

[bcastner]

Note:

This above:
C:\subinacl.exe /verbose /subkeyreg
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ /grant=everyone=f

Should be on one line:

C:\subinacl.exe /verbose /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ /grant=everyone=f

It likely will be if you just copy/paste but check.



Users Helping Users

 

[fourtyseven]

cool, thx for the tips bcastner. i'll try it out.

 

[linney]

With those earlier links I was wondering if you were seeing this oddity on a per Theme used basis, do they use a mixture of XP Classic and XP Themes in your work place?

 

[fourtyseven]

All of the machines in my office are built from an image. Most of the user accounts have bare bones permissions, they can't do a whole lot. The client having this problem just uses the classic XP theme, and i think all of the other machines in this department do as well.

I checked out her registry key values in
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

Her values for those 4 keys are as follows:

"SearchSystemDirs"=dword:00000000
"SearchHidden"=dword:00000000
"IncludeSubFolders"=dword:00000001
"CaseSensitive"=dword:00000000

Basically, her search is set up to not search system directories or hidden files. which is wierd but not critical. How exactly would these two keys be causing her "Find In" textbox to not autofill with the current directory before searching?

 

[bcastner]

Create a new user on the workstation and give it Administrator priviliges.

Test the search feature again.


____________________________
Users Helping Users

 

[fourtyseven]

Unfortunately, I don't have any powers over computer accounts here at work.

I noticed today when I tried searching for something on my PC that the "Look In" textbox took a couple seconds to populate because the computer was doing a bunch of processing. I wonder how exactly this textbox works. It seems near impossible to find any information about it.