lost searching ability

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Wade
  • Start date Start date
J

Jason Wade

Hello. Although I use linux, my father uses winxp (professional),
and I'm helping to maintain and secure the machine. Spybot s&d,
adaware, and avg free are all installed and updated and
don't detect anything.

My problem:
Searching for files on disk is disabled. Whenever I try
to activate search, either using "start / search..."
or by right-clicking a folder and selecting "search...",
nothing happens.

I don't know if it's malware related or if it's something
that I disabled.

I went to this web site:
http://www.uksecurityonline.com/index5.php

I followed most of the advice there, and I disabled a lot
of services. Is one of those services related to searching?

Again, the system seems and runs normally except for the
lack of file searching. Anyone have any idea what's wrong
with my father's machine?

P.S.
I'm just grasping for ideas right now. I won't be able to
work on his machine for another week or so.

Thanks in advance.
 
If he has a firewall, try disabling it temporarily to see if that's the
cause. My ZoneAlarm firewall required a rule before it would allow me to
search from the context menu (rightclick on a folder), however search still
works as normal (no rule required) when entering it via Start>Search>Files
or Folders. Running Windows XP Home here. Possibly XP Pro has more
administrative complications than XP Home that could affect it(?), so maybe
try searching in safe mode.
-E

Hello. Although I use linux, my father uses winxp (professional),
and I'm helping to maintain and secure the machine. Spybot s&d,
adaware, and avg free are all installed and updated and
don't detect anything.

My problem:
Searching for files on disk is disabled. Whenever I try
to activate search, either using "start / search..."
or by right-clicking a folder and selecting "search...",
nothing happens.

I don't know if it's malware related or if it's something
that I disabled.

I went to this web site:
http://www.uksecurityonline.com/index5.php

I followed most of the advice there, and I disabled a lot
of services. Is one of those services related to searching?

Again, the system seems and runs normally except for the
lack of file searching. Anyone have any idea what's wrong
with my father's machine?

P.S.
I'm just grasping for ideas right now. I won't be able to
work on his machine for another week or so.

Thanks in advance.
 
Running Windows XP Home here. Possibly
XP Pro has more administrative complications than XP Home that could
affect it(?), so maybe try searching in safe mode.
-E
Click to expand...

I doubt that. I don't know what the OP's problem may be.

Duane :)
 
If he has a firewall, try disabling it temporarily to see if that's the
cause.
Click to expand...

The internet connection firewall (ICF) is enabled on his
machine. I'll fiddle with that, but I'd be really scared for
him to go on the 'net without the ICF.
My ZoneAlarm firewall required a rule before it would allow me to
search from the context menu (rightclick on a folder), however search still
works as normal (no rule required) when entering it via Start>Search>Files
or Folders.
Click to expand...

Even this doesn't work on his machine.
Running Windows XP Home here. Possibly XP Pro has more
administrative complications than XP Home that could affect it(?), so maybe
try searching in safe mode.
-E
Click to expand...

Thanks. I hope that there is a winxp guru who can tell me
what services the search facility is dependent upon so
that I can re-enable those services only.

Any ideas anyone?
 
Jason Wade said:
The internet connection firewall (ICF) is enabled on his
machine. I'll fiddle with that, but I'd be really scared for
him to go on the 'net without the ICF.


Even this doesn't work on his machine.


Thanks. I hope that there is a winxp guru who can tell me
what services the search facility is dependent upon so
that I can re-enable those services only.

Any ideas anyone?
Click to expand...

Well,

The services I basically leave them alone. Since the machines are behind a
NAT router, BlackIce and IPsec and a lot of the services I need running in
the LAN environment, some services I just don't touch.

However, I have disabled a couple of services like Fast User Switching,
Wireless Zero Configuration, Remote Registry Management etc, etc services of
that nature that can present an immediate threat to the machine.

Using Process Explorer (free), I did an *.* scan of the <C> and used PE to
see what processes were getting cpu time during the search. The two
processes were services.exe and explorer.exe. Looking inside of each running
process to see what processes they are running, well, they use a lot of
services and subcomponents of services.

My advise to you is to enable all services that you disabled and take a
systematic approach of disabling a service and running a *search* to see if
that stops the *search* from functioning.

Duane :)
 
Jason Wade said:
[ lots-o-snippage ]
Thanks. I hope that there is a winxp guru who can tell me
what services the search facility is dependent upon so
that I can re-enable those services only.

Any ideas anyone?
Click to expand...

[ snippedy do-dah ]
My advise to you is to enable all services that you disabled and take a
systematic approach of disabling a service and running a *search* to see if
that stops the *search* from functioning.

Duane :)
Click to expand...

That's what I'll do. Thanks Duane.
 
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