Weird problem with Search in Windows Explorer

[bizzybody]

Unless I enter the full name, with extention, of the file I want to find, Search claims it can't find anything. Wildcards like *.exe don't work. I don't have Match case checked. I can put something like maketeal.exe in a folder by itself and search that folder for *.exe or maketeal and it'll say there's nothing found.

[gosh]

right click inf\srchasst.inf and install it

regsvr32 C:\WINDOWS\srchasst\srchui.dll

Check HKCU\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

make sure you have FileFindBandHook, etc

-gosh

[bizzybody]

I can't find srchasst.inf on the drive. The DLL registration finished without errors. Here's the contents of that Registry key.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"WebFindBandHook"="{68F2D3FC-8366-4a46-8224-58EFA2749425}"
"FileFindBandHook"="{FFAC7A18-EDF9-40de-BA3F-49FC2269855E}"
"Logon User Name"="Administrator"
"ShellState"=hex:24,00,00,00,38,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
  01,00,00,00,0d,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"CleanShutdown"=dword:00000000
"EnableAutoTray"=dword:00000000
"FaultCount"=dword:00000000
"FaultTime"=dword:00000000
"IconUnderline"=hex(0):03,00,00,00
"Shutdown Setting"=dword:00000002
"Reason Setting"=dword:000000ff
"Browse For Folder Width"=dword:0000013e
"Browse For Folder Height"=dword:00000120
"link"=hex:1e,00,00,00
"SearchSystemDirs"=dword:00000001
"SearchHidden"=dword:00000001
"IncludeSubFolders"=dword:00000001
"CaseSensitive"=dword:00000000
"SearchSlowFiles"=dword:00000000
"NoFileFolderConnection"=dword:00000000

I also found this hunk of gibberish in there. Deleting it shouldn't hurt anything, eh? (I think it's about time for a nuke and pave job, but it's such a huge PITA on dialup, even with an SP2 slipstreamed CD and the last Autopatcher from August 2007.)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\lA+I+Lt4RTIlnlgNTWCbX+04nGM=]
"tRP5KXExzM4IVjcxpxdMCDTaAk8="="yfs="
"fV9ro0qXtGTvYZgSDASwdAasDVU="="z/uhUA=="
"54awq/y+r2M4vIhSJuwpQhwSGas="="yfs="
"akVPJ9wWibwa5I5IHV+sFRzg53k="="YLdWm54zyAE="
"2BpN//ShX5DoAvXjIrkr5hei2Jw="="m12UCNX5wwxDaTDcjwYp2+K7HXI="

Edit: More weirdness. srchasst.inf was NOT visible in the windows\inf directory, until I found a copy online and saved it there, then I got the prompt to overwrite it, so I did. Then I rightclicked on it and aimed the install at c:\i386

Hopefully that worked.... Yup, it did. A search for *.txt now turns up every text file.

Edited December 17, 2007 by bizzybody

[bizzybody]

Dagnabit! Search is broken again and these fixes didn't work this time. Now if I give it an exact filename of a file that is on the drive, it says it's not there. Doesn't matter what I search for, it's not there.

[Arie]

Did you perhaps modify your installation using nLite?

[bizzybody]

No funny modifications on this.

I got search working by unchecking the indexing box on the properties for C: then applied to all subfolders and files. After that was done, I checked the index box again.

Is there a faster way to fix what must have been a screwed up search index?

[Controller]

From my experience with XP (sp2, german) it's quite often it does not find files. Also appears the "containing ..." field does not work either, but is used similar to the "find what" too?