Search Assistant Not Working Right

Jan Il · Mar 21, 2006

Hi Jim, Robert, PA Bear and all.. :-)

In the first round of tests from the information that you provided below, I
have run the IEFix on my desktop with XP Pro SP2. It *appears" to have
resolved the problem for the User account (Admin was working properly
before), as I am able to get access to all the selections and lists. I can
change between the selections and dialog lists just fine. The Search
Companion setting offers no Customize button, however, when I go to
Start>Search and select the Change Preferences>Change Internet search
behavior I am now offered the two selections, Search Assistant, or Classic
Internet search, and a list of default search engines. Voila! Once I select
the Classic Internet search, and then click the Search the Internet link, IE
opens with the Search panel open and the usual search window, and when I
click the Customize button, I am presented with the usual 3 choices and all
the related list boxes per each selection. All appears to be normal with
the exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out. Now.....before
we get too giddy here, this may just be a period of time when the Search
functions are working ok....so I will need to monitor the situation for a
while to see if it holds, or changes again.

However.......(gah....I really do hate the howevers)....in running the IEFix
on my laptop, which also has Windows XP Pro SP2, it has made no change. The
Search functions still do not operate properly except in the Admin account.
Same with the W2K machine. So....now I will proceed with the other tasks
one at a time on my laptop and see if one of them will work. I'll check
back with the results of that. But, wanted to pass on the current
information.

Jan

Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE exclusive
of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it will
suggest something:

There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
alternatives:

First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

Then try each of the following:

1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB 870700,
here:
How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
Explorer 6 Service Pack 2, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most part.
Check to see if your problem remains after each:

a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows. This
new
feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker, follow
these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click the Privacy tab.
3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups check
box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click OK.

b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder, the
page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must delete
the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
5) Click OK.

c. Third-party browser extensions
Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with how
Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these extensions,
follow these steps:

1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Internet
Properties.
2) Click the Advanced tab.
3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
restart) check box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click Ok.
6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.

d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the Security tab.
2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
6) Click Apply.
7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.

2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type "sfc
/scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and the
/.)
Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it takes
a
while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot more,
that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
however, re-register the various software components, and you will need to
do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as replaced in
Event Viewer|System.

Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see mskb
814510, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510)
sfc
can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files from
certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may also
apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window and
enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
qfecheck
installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and for
Win2k
here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470 A
version stated to be common to both is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
Further information about qfecheck is
available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/

3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6 listed
in
Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter

"rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"

without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select the
appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description of
the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You may
have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards, BTW.)

4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
consider the following:

1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
2) Click Start, and click Run.
3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown - it's
case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in Windows
on
your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular situation.)

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
c:\windows\inf\ie.inf

4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and browse to
<CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
CD-ROM, For example, D.

5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet Explorer.

(NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if you're
on
Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot find
in
the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
browse
to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific files
are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
mswrd632.wpc
, which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be located
on
a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the i386
folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe line
given above.)

5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing IE6/OE6:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP (Q318378)
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| ||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||
|| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of OS,
it
|| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
Users.
And
|| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
seem
to
|| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||
|||
||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||| in
||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||
||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||
||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select
the
||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description
of
||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You
may
||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)"
|||
|||
||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the way?
||
|| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the AumHa
forum,
|| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I am
|| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
with
the
|| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS, firewall, AV
or
|| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||
|| Jan
|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||
|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from my
post in her
||||| thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely has
changed. --
||||| ~PA Bear
|||||
||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||
||||||
|||||| Download and run:
|||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG to
restore
|||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes. You'll
||| have
||| to
|||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||
||||||
|||||| ||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and everything
just
||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||
||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||
||||||| Jan
||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||
||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
||||||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| |||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour. I
see the
|||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it due
to
|||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
selections,
Search
|||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and when I
||| tried
||| to
|||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I clicked
OK,
it
|||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it was
the
|||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||
|||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
Customize
||| is
||| as
|||||||| it was before.
||||||||
|||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||
|||||||| Jan
|||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||
||||||||
|||||||| ||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all. They
have here.
||||||||| Why? I have no idea.
||||||||| --
||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||
||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||
|||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how or
why.
(This
|||||||||| may
|||||||||| have something to do with it:
|||||||||| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.)
No,
|||||||||| there
|||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search Assistant
back.
||||||||||
|||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next" is
||||||||||| now
||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search engine.
||| This
||| has
||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Robert Aldwinckle · Mar 21, 2006

....

Well...I'm not sure which, but, it is the same as you show in the
screenshot, it looks identical to that window that the Customize button
opens, the same that it opens when it is working properly.

Jan,

To be clear, what I mean by "the popup window" is the instance
of that page when it is launched by clicking on the Customize button
in the Search bar. Notice, for example, that it does not have any
Address bar. But the most significant thing that is different about it
(for my point) is that you can't right-click in it nor can you clone it,
e.g. by pressing Ctrl-N. That's why I want you to try opening the URL
in its own normal window. Both windows will look very much alike
but you will have more control over the one which is launched
by using the URL instead of by using the Customize button.
Evidently you need more control in order to do a Refresh,
e.g. in order to make that Loading... symptom change
to the appropriate lists of options. From what I recall we used
to be able to right-click on the Search bar itself but I guess they
must have changed it sometime since then to inhibit that.

Once you do that you should find that you are able to use it to switch
between the various search presentation modes (e.g. switch back to
Search Companion if you like) and change your default search providers
associated with each mode.

Good luck

Robert
---

Jim Byrd · Mar 21, 2006

Hi Jan - Just one thought really quickly (I'm on my way out) - How were you
logged in on the laptop when you ran IEFix? as the User in question or as
the (default) Admin? IIRC, IEFix want's to be run for EACH account affected
logged into that account. More later.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| Hi Jim, Robert, PA Bear and all.. :-)

||
|| In the first round of tests from the information that you provided below,
I
|| have run the IEFix on my desktop with XP Pro SP2. It *appears" to have
|| resolved the problem for the User account (Admin was working properly
|| before), as I am able to get access to all the selections and lists. I
can
|| change between the selections and dialog lists just fine. The Search
|| Companion setting offers no Customize button, however, when I go to
|| Start>Search and select the Change Preferences>Change Internet search
|| behavior I am now offered the two selections, Search Assistant, or
Classic
|| Internet search, and a list of default search engines. Voila! Once I
select
|| the Classic Internet search, and then click the Search the Internet link,
IE
|| opens with the Search panel open and the usual search window, and when I
|| click the Customize button, I am presented with the usual 3 choices and
all
|| the related list boxes per each selection. All appears to be normal with
|| the exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.
Now.....before
|| we get too giddy here, this may just be a period of time when the Search
|| functions are working ok....so I will need to monitor the situation for a
|| while to see if it holds, or changes again.
||
|| However.......(gah....I really do hate the howevers)....in running the
IEFix
|| on my laptop, which also has Windows XP Pro SP2, it has made no change.
The
|| Search functions still do not operate properly except in the Admin
account.
|| Same with the W2K machine. So....now I will proceed with the other tasks
|| one at a time on my laptop and see if one of them will work. I'll check
|| back with the results of that. But, wanted to pass on the current
|| information.
||
|| Jan

||

Jan Il · Mar 21, 2006

Robert Aldwinckle said:
...

Jan,

To be clear, what I mean by "the popup window" is the instance
of that page when it is launched by clicking on the Customize button
in the Search bar. Notice, for example, that it does not have any
Address bar. But the most significant thing that is different about it
(for my point) is that you can't right-click in it nor can you clone it,
e.g. by pressing Ctrl-N. That's why I want you to try opening the URL
in its own normal window.

But...I guess I am the densest thing since granite, but, I don't understand
which URL you are talking about. Where is the URL located? I just can't
determine what URL or where you are taling about. There are two methods to
use the Internet Search that I see...one when you open IE and click the
Search button on the toolbar, and from the Start>Search>Search the Internet,
which also opens IE and the Search panel.

Both windows will look very much alike
but you will have more control over the one which is launched
by using the URL instead of by using the Customize button.
Evidently you need more control in order to do a Refresh,
e.g. in order to make that Loading... symptom change
to the appropriate lists of options. From what I recall we used
to be able to right-click on the Search bar itself but I guess they
must have changed it sometime since then to inhibit that.

Once you do that you should find that you are able to use it to switch
between the various search presentation modes (e.g. switch back to
Search Companion if you like) and change your default search providers
associated with each mode.

If it is the one from the Start>Search>Search the Internet that you click
from the Search window there, when I tried it from there it did not make any
difference at all. I got the additional selections list alright, and the
list boxes showed up, but, as I said, none of them would work, nothing would
hold, nothing changed.

I do have some interesting results posted under Jim's post to report, and
some others now that I have finally finished with the laptop.

Jan

Anna · Mar 21, 2006

I tried the url and it still didn't give me the normal options when I
clicked on search assistant. The page did load and it looked like it
should, but when choosing search assistant, I used to get another page that
let me choose how many search agents I wanted to use and what order I wanted
them in.
This is the url that I used in IE address bar.
http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/srchcust.htm
Anna

Jan Il said:
Robert Aldwinckle said:

...

Jan,

To be clear, what I mean by "the popup window" is the instance
of that page when it is launched by clicking on the Customize button
in the Search bar. Notice, for example, that it does not have any
Address bar. But the most significant thing that is different about it
(for my point) is that you can't right-click in it nor can you clone it,
e.g. by pressing Ctrl-N. That's why I want you to try opening the URL
in its own normal window.

Click to expand...

But...I guess I am the densest thing since granite, but, I don't
understand which URL you are talking about. Where is the URL located? I
just can't determine what URL or where you are taling about. There are
two methods to use the Internet Search that I see...one when you open IE
and click the Search button on the toolbar, and from the
Start>Search>Search the Internet, which also opens IE and the Search
panel.

Both windows will look very much alike
but you will have more control over the one which is launched
by using the URL instead of by using the Customize button.
Evidently you need more control in order to do a Refresh,
e.g. in order to make that Loading... symptom change
to the appropriate lists of options. From what I recall we used
to be able to right-click on the Search bar itself but I guess they
must have changed it sometime since then to inhibit that.

Once you do that you should find that you are able to use it to switch
between the various search presentation modes (e.g. switch back to
Search Companion if you like) and change your default search providers
associated with each mode.

Click to expand...

If it is the one from the Start>Search>Search the Internet that you click
from the Search window there, when I tried it from there it did not make
any difference at all. I got the additional selections list alright, and
the list boxes showed up, but, as I said, none of them would work, nothing
would hold, nothing changed.

I do have some interesting results posted under Jim's post to report, and
some others now that I have finally finished with the laptop.

Jan

Jan Il · Mar 21, 2006

Hi all

Jim Byrd said:
Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE exclusive
of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it will
suggest something:

There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
alternatives:

First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

Then try each of the following:

1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB 870700,
here:
How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
Explorer 6 Service Pack 2, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most part.
Check to see if your problem remains after each:

a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows. This
new
feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker, follow
these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click the Privacy tab.
3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups check
box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click OK.

b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder, the
page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must delete
the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
5) Click OK.

c. Third-party browser extensions
Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with how
Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these extensions,
follow these steps:

1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Internet
Properties.
2) Click the Advanced tab.
3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
restart) check box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click Ok.
6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.

OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window situation.
Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no change, b) no change,
c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the Start>Search> and the
clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet search behavior>selected
Classic search>selected my search engine and clicked OK. Then clicked on
Search the Internet. When IE opened and the Search panel opened, the word
Search was on the top of the search bar. Clicking the Customize button
opened the customize window and there were 3 choices and two list boxes, as
there should be. In this window the first selection, Search Assistant is now
selected. I can change the selections and new list boxes appear for each
different choice selected as they should. I can change the choices and
selection, however, I must close and reopen IE after each change for it to
take effect. All appears to be working as it should, with the
exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.

However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here as a
possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has occurred, as
things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this problem
for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fix or not until
some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make changes, which I
was not able to do before, even when it appeared that things were normal.

I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order to see
what will happen in the next 24 hours.

I hope this helps.

Jan

d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the Security tab.
2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
6) Click Apply.
7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.

2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type "sfc
/scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and the
/.)
Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it takes
a
while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot more,
that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
however, re-register the various software components, and you will need to
do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as replaced in
Event Viewer|System.

Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see mskb
814510, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510)
sfc
can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files from
certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may also
apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window and
enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
qfecheck
installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and for
Win2k
here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470 A
version stated to be common to both is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
Further information about qfecheck is
available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/

3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6 listed
in
Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter

"rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"

without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select the
appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description of
the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You may
have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards, BTW.)

4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
consider the following:

1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
2) Click Start, and click Run.
3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown - it's
case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in Windows
on
your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular situation.)

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
c:\windows\inf\ie.inf

4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and browse to
<CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
CD-ROM, For example, D.

5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet Explorer.

(NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if you're
on
Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot find
in
the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
browse
to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific files
are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
mswrd632.wpc
, which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be located
on
a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the i386
folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe line
given above.)

5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing IE6/OE6:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP (Q318378)
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| ||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||
|| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of OS,
it
|| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
Users.
And
|| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
seem
to
|| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||
|||
||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||| in
||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||
||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||
||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select
the
||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description
of
||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You
may
||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)"
|||
|||
||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the way?
||
|| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the AumHa
forum,
|| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I am
|| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
with
the
|| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS, firewall, AV
or
|| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||
|| Jan
|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||
|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from my
post in her
||||| thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely has
changed. --
||||| ~PA Bear
|||||
||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||
||||||
|||||| Download and run:
|||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG to
restore
|||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes. You'll
||| have
||| to
|||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||
||||||
|||||| ||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and everything
just
||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||
||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||
||||||| Jan
||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||
||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
||||||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| |||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour. I
see the
|||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it due
to
|||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
selections,
Search
|||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and when I
||| tried
||| to
|||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I clicked
OK,
it
|||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it was
the
|||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||
|||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
Customize
||| is
||| as
|||||||| it was before.
||||||||
|||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||
|||||||| Jan
|||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||
||||||||
|||||||| ||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all. They
have here.
||||||||| Why? I have no idea.
||||||||| --
||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||
||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||
|||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how or
why.
(This
|||||||||| may
|||||||||| have something to do with it:
|||||||||| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.)
No,
|||||||||| there
|||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search Assistant
back.
||||||||||
|||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next" is
||||||||||| now
||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search engine.
||| This
||| has
||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Jan Il · Mar 22, 2006

Jim Byrd said:
Hi Jan - Just one thought really quickly (I'm on my way out) - How were
you
logged in on the laptop when you ran IEFix? as the User in question or as
the (default) Admin? IIRC, IEFix want's to be run for EACH account
affected
logged into that account. More later.

Hmmm....interesting. I ran it only from the Admin account, as that is where
I had to install it. I will try it again from the User account and see if
has a different result. I won't have time now, but, I'll try it in the
morning.

Jan

Jan Il · Mar 22, 2006

Anna said:
I tried the url and it still didn't give me the normal options when I
clicked on search assistant. The page did load and it looked like it
should, but when choosing search assistant, I used to get another page that
let me choose how many search agents I wanted to use and what order I
wanted them in.
This is the url that I used in IE address bar.
http://ie.search.msn.com/en-us/srchasst/srchcust.htm

Anna, what did you see when you clicked this link? As I am now seeing the
normal Customize window with the three selections at the top with radio
buttons, and two list boxes, "Find a webpage..." and "Choose a provider..."
Is this what you see when you click this link?

When I click on the different radio buttons at the top the information in
the list boxes are changing as they should. Now...keep in mind that this is
as of this moment. We all know that this thing has been changing left and
right at any given time. So, I don't know how much is due to something that
I have done according to Jim's information, or something that has been reset
on IE or the Internet end.

Jan

Anna

Anna · Mar 22, 2006

I copied and pasted that link into my web browser. But I was still not able
to customize. It had three choices, now it only has two. It is giving me
the same thing as if I just clicked on search. It has the Loading search
settings...showing also. But nothing else ever loads. I think that the
page the link directs us to is broke.
Sometimes there are three options and other times only two options.
I have followed the first 3 steps from the other post, and have hit refresh
many times when I am on the page from the link. It finally loaded. It now
has three options. I select use search assistant and click ok, the page
then closes, I am never able to customize it.

Jim Byrd · Mar 22, 2006

Hi Jan/Anna - Both my .reg file and IEFix (among its functions) restore the
defaults for a number of Search Related Registry entries, among them several
in the HKCU Registry hive in the case of my .reg file and also for IEFix I
believe, which differs for each user (user.dat in each individual profile).
Consequently, you need to run them logged on as each user involved for whom
the anomalous Search behavior is exhibited. I would suggest this as a first
step and then reevaluate the resultant situation to see where things stand
from that baseline.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| ||| Hi Jan - Just one thought really quickly (I'm on my way out) - How were
||| you
||| logged in on the laptop when you ran IEFix? as the User in question or
as
||| the (default) Admin? IIRC, IEFix want's to be run for EACH account
||| affected
||| logged into that account. More later.
||
|| Hmmm....interesting. I ran it only from the Admin account, as that is
where
|| I had to install it. I will try it again from the User account and see if
|| has a different result. I won't have time now, but, I'll try it in the
|| morning.
||
|| Jan

|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| Hi Jim, Robert, PA Bear and all.. :-)

|||||
||||| In the first round of tests from the information that you provided
||| below,
||| I
||||| have run the IEFix on my desktop with XP Pro SP2. It *appears" to
have
||||| resolved the problem for the User account (Admin was working properly
||||| before), as I am able to get access to all the selections and lists. I
can
||||| change between the selections and dialog lists just fine. The Search
||||| Companion setting offers no Customize button, however, when I go to
||||| Start>Search and select the Change Preferences>Change Internet search
||||| behavior I am now offered the two selections, Search Assistant, or
Classic
||||| Internet search, and a list of default search engines. Voila! Once I
select
||||| the Classic Internet search, and then click the Search the Internet
||| link,
||| IE
||||| opens with the Search panel open and the usual search window, and when
I
||||| click the Customize button, I am presented with the usual 3 choices
and all
||||| the related list boxes per each selection. All appears to be normal
with
||||| the exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.
Now.....before
||||| we get too giddy here, this may just be a period of time when the
Search
||||| functions are working ok....so I will need to monitor the situation
for a
||||| while to see if it holds, or changes again.
|||||
||||| However.......(gah....I really do hate the howevers)....in running the
IEFix
||||| on my laptop, which also has Windows XP Pro SP2, it has made no
change. The
||||| Search functions still do not operate properly except in the Admin
account.
||||| Same with the W2K machine. So....now I will proceed with the other
tasks
||||| one at a time on my laptop and see if one of them will work. I'll
check
||||| back with the results of that. But, wanted to pass on the current
||||| information.
|||||
||||| Jan

Anna · Mar 22, 2006

Jim,
I am logged in as administrator. I don't have any other accounts set up on
this computer. Or if there is I am not aware of it. I just restored my
computer with the system disk that I made the day the computer was turned on
from the store. And the search is still acting strangely. One time it will
have two options and the next time it will have three.
I am not sure that it is our computers. I believe like I said before, that
this is related to the Microsoft site. I have two computers that are doing
the same thing. My sister's computer is also.
Anna

Jim Byrd · Mar 22, 2006

OK then, Anna - I suspect that the suggestions I've made don't apply in your
case then. Since I'm not really that familiar with the total history, I'll
bow out of this and leave you to those competent folks (Jan, Bear, et al)
that were originally helping you, and just monitor the thread. Good luck
with this.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| Jim,
|| I am logged in as administrator. I don't have any other accounts set up
on
|| this computer. Or if there is I am not aware of it. I just restored my
|| computer with the system disk that I made the day the computer was turned
on
|| from the store. And the search is still acting strangely. One time it
will
|| have two options and the next time it will have three.
|| I am not sure that it is our computers. I believe like I said before,
that
|| this is related to the Microsoft site. I have two computers that are
doing
|| the same thing. My sister's computer is also.
|| Anna
||
|| ||| Hi Jan/Anna - Both my .reg file and IEFix (among its functions) restore
||| the
||| defaults for a number of Search Related Registry entries, among them
||| several
||| in the HKCU Registry hive in the case of my .reg file and also for IEFix
I
||| believe, which differs for each user (user.dat in each individual
||| profile).
||| Consequently, you need to run them logged on as each user involved for
||| whom
||| the anomalous Search behavior is exhibited. I would suggest this as a
||| first
||| step and then reevaluate the resultant situation to see where things
stand
||| from that baseline.
|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| |||||| Hi Jan - Just one thought really quickly (I'm on my way out) - How
were
|||||| you
|||||| logged in on the laptop when you ran IEFix? as the User in question
||| or
||| as
|||||| the (default) Admin? IIRC, IEFix want's to be run for EACH account
|||||| affected
|||||| logged into that account. More later.
|||||
||||| Hmmm....interesting. I ran it only from the Admin account, as that is
where
||||| I had to install it. I will try it again from the User account and see
if
||||| has a different result. I won't have time now, but, I'll try it in
the
||||| morning.
|||||
||||| Jan

||||||
|||||| --
|||||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
|||||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
|||||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
||||||
||||||
||||||
|||||| |||||||| Hi Jim, Robert, PA Bear and all.. :-)

||||||||
|||||||| In the first round of tests from the information that you provided
|||||| below,
|||||| I
|||||||| have run the IEFix on my desktop with XP Pro SP2. It *appears" to
have
|||||||| resolved the problem for the User account (Admin was working
properly
|||||||| before), as I am able to get access to all the selections and
lists.
||| I
||| can
|||||||| change between the selections and dialog lists just fine. The
Search
|||||||| Companion setting offers no Customize button, however, when I go to
|||||||| Start>Search and select the Change Preferences>Change Internet
search
|||||||| behavior I am now offered the two selections, Search Assistant, or
Classic
|||||||| Internet search, and a list of default search engines. Voila! Once
I select
|||||||| the Classic Internet search, and then click the Search the Internet
|||||| link,
|||||| IE
|||||||| opens with the Search panel open and the usual search window, and
||| when
||| I
|||||||| click the Customize button, I am presented with the usual 3 choices
and all
|||||||| the related list boxes per each selection. All appears to be
normal with
|||||||| the exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.
Now.....before
|||||||| we get too giddy here, this may just be a period of time when the
Search
|||||||| functions are working ok....so I will need to monitor the situation
for a
|||||||| while to see if it holds, or changes again.
||||||||
|||||||| However.......(gah....I really do hate the howevers)....in running
||| the
||| IEFix
|||||||| on my laptop, which also has Windows XP Pro SP2, it has made no
change. The
|||||||| Search functions still do not operate properly except in the Admin
account.
|||||||| Same with the W2K machine. So....now I will proceed with the other
tasks
|||||||| one at a time on my laptop and see if one of them will work. I'll
check
|||||||| back with the results of that. But, wanted to pass on the current
|||||||| information.
||||||||
|||||||| Jan

Anna · Mar 22, 2006

Thank you for the time you spent working on this. I'll keep watching this
thread and see if anyone figures out what is going on. I'm fairly certain
that it isn't anything that I have done on my end that cause the change. I
have ran the windows critical updates and the Norton updates, but nothing
else.
Anna

Jan Il · Mar 22, 2006

Hi all..

Here is another curious/strange behavior. Last night when I made my last
report, all was as it should be and working well. I closed IE and made no
other changes to any settings.

Just now, I opened the IE and checked the Search and Customization and it
had changed back to just the two choices and Loading.....

So....as I reported previously here that there seemed to be a method to the
on -again-off-again madness, I closed IE, went to Start>Search>Change
Preferences>Change Internet Search behavior>and saw that it had changed back
to With Classic search instead of the With Search Companion I had changed it
to that last time. ???

Then I selected the With Search Companion, closed the Search and opened IE.
The Search Companion window was there as it should be.

Then I closed IE, reopened Search from the Start menu, and went to Change
Preferences> Change Internet Search behavior>reselected the With Classic
search, closed Search and reopened IE. There is the panel was the normal
search window, the Customize tab and grayed out Next button. When I clicked
the Customize button, there were the normal 3 choices and all related list
boxes, all worked as it should.

I checked the laptop and the same change up had happened there even with the
machine turned off, and with the same set of steps necessary to restore the
normal Customize window.

Dang! This is really confusing! How the heck can we determine what is
causing this when there seems to be a gremlin in the works making changes
all the time? Here is another aspect. I turned off the laptop, although,
it was still plugged in to the power supply. I did not turn off my desktop,
although, all programs were closed. Thus, I did not have reboot, or
re-logon the desktop, but, did the laptop. Neither situation seemed to make
any difference.

The only thing that I can think of at this point, and it may be off the mark
by a mile, is that it might have to do with the opening and closing of IE,
although, I did open and close the IE several times while testing last
evening and there were no changes that took place on closing that I could
tell.

However, at this point, I *can* make the normal Search Customize choices and
selections available by doing the steps that I outlined above, and all do
work as they should. At least at this point. While it is a round-robin
effort, at least they do work for now, and hopefully, a step closer to
finding a workaround.

Perhaps Anna could test the steps that I posted here and see if they work
for her as well.

Hope this helps.

Jan

MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.

Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other readers.
How to make a good newsgroup post:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

Jan Il said:
Hi all

Jim Byrd said:

Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE
exclusive
of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it will
suggest something:

There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
alternatives:

First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

Then try each of the following:

1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB 870700,
here:
How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
Explorer 6 Service Pack 2, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most part.
Check to see if your problem remains after each:

a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows. This
new
feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker, follow
these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click the Privacy tab.
3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups check
box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click OK.

b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder, the
page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must
delete
the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:

Click to expand...

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
5) Click OK.

c. Third-party browser extensions
Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with how
Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these extensions,
follow these steps:

1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Internet
Properties.
2) Click the Advanced tab.
3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
restart) check box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click Ok.
6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.

Click to expand...

OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window situation.
Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no change, b) no change,
c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the Start>Search> and the
clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet search behavior>selected
Classic search>selected my search engine and clicked OK. Then clicked on
Search the Internet. When IE opened and the Search panel opened, the word
Search was on the top of the search bar. Clicking the Customize button
opened the customize window and there were 3 choices and two list boxes,
as there should be. In this window the first selection, Search Assistant
is now selected. I can change the selections and new list boxes appear
for each different choice selected as they should. I can change the
choices and selection, however, I must close and reopen IE after each
change for it to take effect. All appears to be working as it should,
with the
exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.

However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here as a
possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has occurred, as
things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this problem
for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fix or not
until some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make changes,
which I was not able to do before, even when it appeared that things were
normal.

I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order to
see what will happen in the next 24 hours.

I hope this helps.

Jan

d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the Security tab.
2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
6) Click Apply.
7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.

2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type "sfc
/scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and the
/.)
Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it
takes a
while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot more,
that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
however, re-register the various software components, and you will need
to
do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as replaced
in
Event Viewer|System.

Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see mskb
814510, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510)
sfc
can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files from
certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may
also
apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window and
enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
qfecheck
installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and for
Win2k
here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470 A
version stated to be common to both is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
Further information about qfecheck is
available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/

3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6 listed
in
Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter

"rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"

without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select
the
appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description of
the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You
may
have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards, BTW.)

4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
consider the following:

1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
2) Click Start, and click Run.
3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown - it's
case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in Windows
on
your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular
situation.)

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
c:\windows\inf\ie.inf

4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and browse to
<CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
CD-ROM, For example, D.

5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet Explorer.

(NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if you're
on
Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot find
in
the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
browse
to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific
files
are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder, mswrd632.wpc
, which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be located
on
a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the i386
folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe line
given above.)

5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing IE6/OE6:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP (Q318378)
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| ||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||
|| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of
OS,
it
|| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
Users.
And
|| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
seem
to
|| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||
|||
||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||| in
||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||
||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||
||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
select
the
||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
Description
of
||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
(You
may
||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)"
|||
|||
||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the way?
||
|| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the AumHa
forum,
|| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I am
|| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
with
the
|| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS, firewall,
AV
or
|| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||
|| Jan
|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||
|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from my
post in her
||||| thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely has
changed. --
||||| ~PA Bear
|||||
||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||
||||||
|||||| Download and run:
|||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG to
restore
|||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes. You'll
||| have
||| to
|||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||
||||||
|||||| ||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and everything
just
||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||
||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||
||||||| Jan
||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||
||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
||||||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| |||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour. I
see the
|||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it
due
to
|||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
selections,
Search
|||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and when I
||| tried
||| to
|||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I clicked
OK,
it
|||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it
was
the
|||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||
|||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
Customize
||| is
||| as
|||||||| it was before.
||||||||
|||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||
|||||||| Jan
|||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||
||||||||
|||||||| ||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all. They
have here.
||||||||| Why? I have no idea.
||||||||| --
||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||
||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||
|||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how or
why.
(This
|||||||||| may
|||||||||| have something to do with it:
|||||||||| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.)
No,
|||||||||| there
|||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search Assistant
back.
||||||||||
|||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next" is
||||||||||| now
||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search engine.
||| This
||| has
||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Click to expand...

Anna · Mar 22, 2006

The steps seen to work as you stated, except when I open search in IE and
select customize, then select search assistant, I am not given any choises
to select the search agents that I want. The other two choises seem to work
as they should. Next button is always greyed out for me. So far today I am
given three choises when selecting customize search from IE.
This site describes what I am looking for. I feel like I am going in circles
with this.
http://www.internet-explorer-tutorials.com/best-search-engines-choices.html

Jan Il said:
Hi all..

Here is another curious/strange behavior. Last night when I made my last
report, all was as it should be and working well. I closed IE and made no
other changes to any settings.

Just now, I opened the IE and checked the Search and Customization and it
had changed back to just the two choices and Loading.....

So....as I reported previously here that there seemed to be a method to
the on -again-off-again madness, I closed IE, went to Start>Search>Change
Preferences>Change Internet Search behavior>and saw that it had changed
back to With Classic search instead of the With Search Companion I had
changed it to that last time. ???

Then I selected the With Search Companion, closed the Search and opened
IE. The Search Companion window was there as it should be.

Then I closed IE, reopened Search from the Start menu, and went to Change
Preferences> Change Internet Search behavior>reselected the With Classic
search, closed Search and reopened IE. There is the panel was the normal
search window, the Customize tab and grayed out Next button. When I
clicked the Customize button, there were the normal 3 choices and all
related list boxes, all worked as it should.

I checked the laptop and the same change up had happened there even with
the machine turned off, and with the same set of steps necessary to
restore the normal Customize window.

Dang! This is really confusing! How the heck can we determine what is
causing this when there seems to be a gremlin in the works making changes
all the time? Here is another aspect. I turned off the laptop, although,
it was still plugged in to the power supply. I did not turn off my
desktop, although, all programs were closed. Thus, I did not have reboot,
or re-logon the desktop, but, did the laptop. Neither situation seemed to
make any difference.

The only thing that I can think of at this point, and it may be off the
mark by a mile, is that it might have to do with the opening and closing
of IE, although, I did open and close the IE several times while testing
last evening and there were no changes that took place on closing that I
could tell.

However, at this point, I *can* make the normal Search Customize choices
and selections available by doing the steps that I outlined above, and all
do work as they should. At least at this point. While it is a
round-robin effort, at least they do work for now, and hopefully, a step
closer to finding a workaround.

Perhaps Anna could test the steps that I posted here and see if they work
for her as well.

Hope this helps.

Jan
MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.

Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other readers.
How to make a good newsgroup post:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

Jan Il said:

Hi all

Jim Byrd said:

Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE
exclusive
of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it will
suggest something:

There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
alternatives:

First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

Then try each of the following:

1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB 870700,
here:
How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
Explorer 6 Service Pack 2, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most part.
Check to see if your problem remains after each:

a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows. This
new
feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker, follow
these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click the Privacy tab.
3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups check
box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click OK.

b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder, the
page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must
delete
the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:

Click to expand...

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
5) Click OK.

c. Third-party browser extensions
Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with how
Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these extensions,
follow these steps:

1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Internet
Properties.
2) Click the Advanced tab.
3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
restart) check box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click Ok.
6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.

Click to expand...

OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window situation.
Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no change, b) no
change, c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the Start>Search> and
the clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet search
behavior>selected Classic search>selected my search engine and clicked
OK. Then clicked on Search the Internet. When IE opened and the Search
panel opened, the word Search was on the top of the search bar. Clicking
the Customize button opened the customize window and there were 3 choices
and two list boxes, as there should be. In this window the first
selection, Search Assistant is now selected. I can change the selections
and new list boxes appear for each different choice selected as they
should. I can change the choices and selection, however, I must close and
reopen IE after each change for it to take effect. All appears to be
working as it should, with the
exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.

However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here as a
possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has occurred, as
things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this
problem for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fix
or not until some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make
changes, which I was not able to do before, even when it appeared that
things were normal.

I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order to
see what will happen in the next 24 hours.

I hope this helps.

Jan

d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the Security tab.
2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
6) Click Apply.
7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.

2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type "sfc
/scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and the
/.)
Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it
takes a
while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot more,
that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
however, re-register the various software components, and you will need
to
do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as replaced
in
Event Viewer|System.

Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see mskb
814510, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510)
sfc
can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files from
certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may
also
apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window
and
enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
qfecheck
installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and for
Win2k
here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470 A
version stated to be common to both is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
Further information about qfecheck is
available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/

3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6 listed
in
Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter

"rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"

without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select
the
appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description
of
the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You
may
have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)

4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
consider the following:

1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
2) Click Start, and click Run.
3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown -
it's
case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in
Windows on
your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular
situation.)

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
c:\windows\inf\ie.inf

4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and browse
to
<CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
CD-ROM, For example, D.

5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet Explorer.

(NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if you're
on
Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot find
in
the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
browse
to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific
files
are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
mswrd632.wpc
, which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be located
on
a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the i386
folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe line
given above.)

5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing
IE6/OE6:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP (Q318378)
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| ||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||
|| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of
OS,
it
|| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
Users.
And
|| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
seem
to
|| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||
|||
||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||| in
||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||
||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||
||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
select
the
||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
Description
of
||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You
may
||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)"
|||
|||
||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the way?
||
|| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the AumHa
forum,
|| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I am
|| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
with
the
|| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS, firewall,
AV
or
|| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||
|| Jan
|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||
|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from my
post in her
||||| thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely has
changed. --
||||| ~PA Bear
|||||
||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||
||||||
|||||| Download and run:
|||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG to
restore
|||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes.
You'll
||| have
||| to
|||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||
||||||
|||||| ||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and
everything
just
||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||
||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||
||||||| Jan
||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||
||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or
other
readers.
||||||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| |||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour.
I
see the
|||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it
due
to
|||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
selections,
Search
|||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and when
I
||| tried
||| to
|||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I clicked
OK,
it
|||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it
was
the
|||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||
|||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
Customize
||| is
||| as
|||||||| it was before.
||||||||
|||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||
|||||||| Jan
|||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||
||||||||
|||||||| ||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all. They
have here.
||||||||| Why? I have no idea.
||||||||| --
||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||
||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||
|||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how or
why.
(This
|||||||||| may
|||||||||| have something to do with it:
||||||||||
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.)
No,
|||||||||| there
|||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search Assistant
back.
||||||||||
|||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next" is
||||||||||| now
||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search
engine.
||| This
||| has
||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Jim Byrd · Mar 22, 2006

Hi Jan - What types of "background" anti-malware might you be running that
normally "protect" such settings? SpywareBlaster, Windows Defender, Windows
Anti-Spyware, SpyBot S&D Immunize, etc.? (Windows Defender is what I might
suspect as a Beta) You might try disabling any such, one at a time, to see
if there's any effect.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| Hi all..
||
|| Here is another curious/strange behavior. Last night when I made my last
|| report, all was as it should be and working well. I closed IE and made
no
|| other changes to any settings.
||
|| Just now, I opened the IE and checked the Search and Customization and it
|| had changed back to just the two choices and Loading.....
||
|| So....as I reported previously here that there seemed to be a method to
the
|| on -again-off-again madness, I closed IE, went to Start>Search>Change
|| Preferences>Change Internet Search behavior>and saw that it had changed
back
|| to With Classic search instead of the With Search Companion I had changed
it
|| to that last time. ???
||
|| Then I selected the With Search Companion, closed the Search and opened
IE.
|| The Search Companion window was there as it should be.
||
|| Then I closed IE, reopened Search from the Start menu, and went to
Change
|| Preferences> Change Internet Search behavior>reselected the With Classic
|| search, closed Search and reopened IE. There is the panel was the normal
|| search window, the Customize tab and grayed out Next button. When I
clicked
|| the Customize button, there were the normal 3 choices and all related
list
|| boxes, all worked as it should.
||
|| I checked the laptop and the same change up had happened there even with
the
|| machine turned off, and with the same set of steps necessary to restore
the
|| normal Customize window.
||
|| Dang! This is really confusing! How the heck can we determine what is
|| causing this when there seems to be a gremlin in the works making changes
|| all the time? Here is another aspect. I turned off the laptop,
although,
|| it was still plugged in to the power supply. I did not turn off my
desktop,
|| although, all programs were closed. Thus, I did not have reboot, or
|| re-logon the desktop, but, did the laptop. Neither situation seemed to
make
|| any difference.
||
|| The only thing that I can think of at this point, and it may be off the
mark
|| by a mile, is that it might have to do with the opening and closing of
IE,
|| although, I did open and close the IE several times while testing last
|| evening and there were no changes that took place on closing that I could
|| tell.
||
|| However, at this point, I *can* make the normal Search Customize choices
and
|| selections available by doing the steps that I outlined above, and all do
|| work as they should. At least at this point. While it is a round-robin
|| effort, at least they do work for now, and hopefully, a step closer to
|| finding a workaround.
||
|| Perhaps Anna could test the steps that I posted here and see if they work
|| for her as well.
||
|| Hope this helps.
||
|| Jan

|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|| that's why they're so contagious.
||
|| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
|| How to make a good newsgroup post:
|| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
||
||
||
|| ||| Hi all :-)

|||
||| |||| Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE
|||| exclusive
|||| of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it
will
|||| suggest something:
||||
||||
|||| There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
|||| alternatives:
||||
|||| First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
|||| http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm
||||
|||| Then try each of the following:
||||
|||| 1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB 870700,
|||| here:
|||| How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
|||| Explorer 6 Service Pack 2, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
|||| first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
|||| related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most
part.
|||| Check to see if your problem remains after each:
||||
|||| a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
|||| Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows.
This
|||| new
|||| feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker,
follow
|||| these steps:
||||
|||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
|||| then
|||| click the General tab.
|||| 2) Click the Privacy tab.
|||| 3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups
check
|||| box.
|||| 4) Click Apply.
|||| 5) Click OK.
||||
|||| b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
|||| If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder,
the
|||| page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must
|||| delete
|||| the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:
|||
||||
|||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
|||| then
|||| click the General tab.
|||| 2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
|||| 3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
|||| 4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
|||| 5) Click OK.
||||
|||| c. Third-party browser extensions
|||| Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with how
|||| Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these
extensions,
|||| follow these steps:
||||
|||| 1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Internet
|||| Properties.
|||| 2) Click the Advanced tab.
|||| 3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
|||| restart) check box.
|||| 4) Click Apply.
|||| 5) Click Ok.
|||| 6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.
|||
||| OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
||| laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window
situation.
||| Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no change, b) no
change,
||| c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the Start>Search> and the
||| clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet search behavior>selected
||| Classic search>selected my search engine and clicked OK. Then clicked
on
||| Search the Internet. When IE opened and the Search panel opened, the
word
||| Search was on the top of the search bar. Clicking the Customize button
||| opened the customize window and there were 3 choices and two list boxes,
||| as there should be. In this window the first selection, Search Assistant
||| is now selected. I can change the selections and new list boxes appear
||| for each different choice selected as they should. I can change the
||| choices and selection, however, I must close and reopen IE after each
||| change for it to take effect. All appears to be working as it should,
||| with the
||| exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.
|||
||| However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here as a
||| possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has occurred,
as
||| things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this
problem
||| for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fix or not
||| until some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make changes,
||| which I was not able to do before, even when it appeared that things
were
||| normal.
|||
||| I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order to
||| see what will happen in the next 24 hours.
|||
||| I hope this helps.
|||
||| Jan

|||
||||
|||| d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:
||||
|||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
|||| then
|||| click the Security tab.
|||| 2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
|||| 3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
|||| 4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
|||| 5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
|||| 6) Click Apply.
|||| 7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.
||||
|||| 2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type
"sfc
|||| /scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and
the
|||| /.)
|||| Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it
|||| takes a
|||| while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot
more,
|||| that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
|||| however, re-register the various software components, and you will need
|||| to
|||| do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as replaced
|||| in
|||| Event Viewer|System.
||||
|||| Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see mskb
|||| 814510,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510)
|||| sfc
|||| can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files
from
|||| certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may
|||| also
|||| apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window
and
|||| enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
|||| qfecheck
|||| installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
|||| http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and for
|||| Win2k
|||| here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470
A
|||| version stated to be common to both is available here:
||||
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
|||| Further information about qfecheck is
|||| available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/
||||
||||
||||
|||| 3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
|||| in
|||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
||||
|||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
||||
|||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select
|||| the
|||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description
of
|||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
|||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You
|||| may
|||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)
||||
||||
||||
|||| 4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
|||| consider the following:
||||
|||| 1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
|||| 2) Click Start, and click Run.
|||| 3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown -
it's
|||| case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in
Windows
|||| on
|||| your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular
|||| situation.)
||||
|||| rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
|||| c:\windows\inf\ie.inf
||||
|||| 4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and browse
to
|||| <CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
|||| CD-ROM, For example, D

.
||||
|||| 5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet
Explorer.
||||
|||| (NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if
you're
|||| on
|||| Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot
find
|||| in
|||| the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
|||| browse
|||| to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific
|||| files
|||| are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
mswrd632.wpc
|||| , which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
|||| Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be
located
|||| on
|||| a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the
i386
|||| folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
|||| WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
|||| repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
|||| WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe line
|||| given above.)
||||
||||
|||| 5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing
IE6/OE6:
||||
|||| How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
|||| Windows
|||| XP (Q318378)
|||| http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378
||||
|||| --
|||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
|||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
|||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
||||
||||
||||
|||| |||||| ||||||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||||||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||||||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||||||
|||||| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of
|||| OS,
|||| it
|||||| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
|||| Users.
|||| And
|||||| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
|||| seem
|||| to
|||||| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||||||
|||||||
||||||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||||||| in
||||||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||||||
||||||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||||||
||||||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
|||| select
|||| the
||||||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
|||| Description
|||| of
||||||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||||||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
|||| (You
|||| may
||||||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)"
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the way?
||||||
|||||| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the AumHa
forum,
|||||| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|||||| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I am
|||||| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
|||| with
|||| the
|||||| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS, firewall,
|||| AV
|||| or
|||||| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|||||| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||||||
|||||| Jan

|||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| --
||||||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||||||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||||||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||||||
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| ||||||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from my
post in
||||||||| her thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely
has
||||||||| changed. -- ~PA Bear
|||||||||
||||||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| Download and run:
|||||||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG to
restore
|||||||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes.
You'll
||||||| have
||||||| to
|||||||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| ||||||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and
everything just
||||||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||||||
||||||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||||||
||||||||||| Jan

||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||||||
||||||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or
other
||||||||||| readers. How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
||||||||||| |||||||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour.
I see the
|||||||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it
|||| due
|||| to
|||||||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
|||| selections,
|||| Search
|||||||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and when
I
||||||| tried
||||||| to
|||||||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I clicked
|||| OK,
|||| it
|||||||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it
|||| was
|||| the
|||||||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
|||| Customize
||||||| is
||||||| as
|||||||||||| it was before.
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Jan

|||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||||||
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| ||||||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all. They
have
||||||||||||| here. Why? I have no idea.
||||||||||||| --
||||||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how or
|||| why.
|||| (This
|||||||||||||| may
|||||||||||||| have something to do with it:
||||||||||||||
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.) No,
|||||||||||||| there
|||||||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search Assistant
back.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next" is
||||||||||||||| now
||||||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search
engine.
||||||| This
||||||| has
||||||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Anna · Mar 22, 2006

Jim, when I first noticed this problem, I had SpyBot search and destroy
immunize and Norton antivirus running. I now have added Windows Defender
as suggested at AumHa forum. I have used the first two programs for several
years.
Anna.

Jim Byrd said:
Hi Jan - What types of "background" anti-malware might you be running that
normally "protect" such settings? SpywareBlaster, Windows Defender,
Windows
Anti-Spyware, SpyBot S&D Immunize, etc.? (Windows Defender is what I
might
suspect as a Beta) You might try disabling any such, one at a time, to
see
if there's any effect.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| Hi all..
||
|| Here is another curious/strange behavior. Last night when I made my
last
|| report, all was as it should be and working well. I closed IE and made
no
|| other changes to any settings.
||
|| Just now, I opened the IE and checked the Search and Customization and
it
|| had changed back to just the two choices and Loading.....
||
|| So....as I reported previously here that there seemed to be a method to
the
|| on -again-off-again madness, I closed IE, went to Start>Search>Change
|| Preferences>Change Internet Search behavior>and saw that it had changed
back
|| to With Classic search instead of the With Search Companion I had
changed
it
|| to that last time. ???
||
|| Then I selected the With Search Companion, closed the Search and opened
IE.
|| The Search Companion window was there as it should be.
||
|| Then I closed IE, reopened Search from the Start menu, and went to
Change
|| Preferences> Change Internet Search behavior>reselected the With
Classic
|| search, closed Search and reopened IE. There is the panel was the
normal
|| search window, the Customize tab and grayed out Next button. When I
clicked
|| the Customize button, there were the normal 3 choices and all related
list
|| boxes, all worked as it should.
||
|| I checked the laptop and the same change up had happened there even
with
the
|| machine turned off, and with the same set of steps necessary to restore
the
|| normal Customize window.
||
|| Dang! This is really confusing! How the heck can we determine what is
|| causing this when there seems to be a gremlin in the works making
changes
|| all the time? Here is another aspect. I turned off the laptop,
although,
|| it was still plugged in to the power supply. I did not turn off my
desktop,
|| although, all programs were closed. Thus, I did not have reboot, or
|| re-logon the desktop, but, did the laptop. Neither situation seemed to
make
|| any difference.
||
|| The only thing that I can think of at this point, and it may be off the
mark
|| by a mile, is that it might have to do with the opening and closing of
IE,
|| although, I did open and close the IE several times while testing last
|| evening and there were no changes that took place on closing that I
could
|| tell.
||
|| However, at this point, I *can* make the normal Search Customize
choices
and
|| selections available by doing the steps that I outlined above, and all
do
|| work as they should. At least at this point. While it is a
round-robin
|| effort, at least they do work for now, and hopefully, a step closer to
|| finding a workaround.
||
|| Perhaps Anna could test the steps that I posted here and see if they
work
|| for her as well.
||
|| Hope this helps.
||
|| Jan
|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|| that's why they're so contagious.
||
|| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
|| How to make a good newsgroup post:
|| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
||
||
||
|| ||| Hi all
|||
||| |||| Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE
|||| exclusive
|||| of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it
will
|||| suggest something:
||||
||||
|||| There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
|||| alternatives:
||||
|||| First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
|||| http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm
||||
|||| Then try each of the following:
||||
|||| 1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB
870700,
|||| here:
|||| How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
|||| Explorer 6 Service Pack 2,
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
|||| first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
|||| related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most
part.
|||| Check to see if your problem remains after each:
||||
|||| a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
|||| Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows.
This
|||| new
|||| feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker,
follow
|||| these steps:
||||
|||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
|||| then
|||| click the General tab.
|||| 2) Click the Privacy tab.
|||| 3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups
check
|||| box.
|||| 4) Click Apply.
|||| 5) Click OK.
||||
|||| b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
|||| If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder,
the
|||| page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must
|||| delete
|||| the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:
|||
||||
|||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
|||| then
|||| click the General tab.
|||| 2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
|||| 3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
|||| 4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
|||| 5) Click OK.
||||
|||| c. Third-party browser extensions
|||| Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with
how
|||| Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these
extensions,
|||| follow these steps:
||||
|||| 1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click
Internet
|||| Properties.
|||| 2) Click the Advanced tab.
|||| 3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
|||| restart) check box.
|||| 4) Click Apply.
|||| 5) Click Ok.
|||| 6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.
|||
||| OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
||| laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window
situation.
||| Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no change, b) no
change,
||| c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the Start>Search> and the
||| clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet search
behavior>selected
||| Classic search>selected my search engine and clicked OK. Then clicked
on
||| Search the Internet. When IE opened and the Search panel opened, the
word
||| Search was on the top of the search bar. Clicking the Customize button
||| opened the customize window and there were 3 choices and two list
boxes,
||| as there should be. In this window the first selection, Search
Assistant
||| is now selected. I can change the selections and new list boxes
appear
||| for each different choice selected as they should. I can change the
||| choices and selection, however, I must close and reopen IE after each
||| change for it to take effect. All appears to be working as it should,
||| with the
||| exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.
|||
||| However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here as
a
||| possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has occurred,
as
||| things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this
problem
||| for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fix or not
||| until some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make
changes,
||| which I was not able to do before, even when it appeared that things
were
||| normal.
|||
||| I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order
to
||| see what will happen in the next 24 hours.
|||
||| I hope this helps.
|||
||| Jan
|||
||||
|||| d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:
||||
|||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
|||| then
|||| click the Security tab.
|||| 2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
|||| 3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
|||| 4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
|||| 5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
|||| 6) Click Apply.
|||| 7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.
||||
|||| 2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type
"sfc
|||| /scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and
the
|||| /.)
|||| Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it
|||| takes a
|||| while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot
more,
|||| that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
|||| however, re-register the various software components, and you will
need
|||| to
|||| do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as
replaced
|||| in
|||| Event Viewer|System.
||||
|||| Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see
mskb
|||| 814510,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510)
|||| sfc
|||| can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files
from
|||| certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may
|||| also
|||| apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window
and
|||| enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
|||| qfecheck
|||| installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
|||| http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and
for
|||| Win2k
|||| here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470
A
|||| version stated to be common to both is available here:
||||
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
|||| Further information about qfecheck is
|||| available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/
||||
||||
||||
|||| 3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
|||| in
|||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
||||
|||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
||||
|||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
select
|||| the
|||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
Description
of
|||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
|||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
(You
|||| may
|||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)
||||
||||
||||
|||| 4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
|||| consider the following:
||||
|||| 1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
|||| 2) Click Start, and click Run.
|||| 3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown -
it's
|||| case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in
Windows
|||| on
|||| your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular
|||| situation.)
||||
|||| rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
|||| c:\windows\inf\ie.inf
||||
|||| 4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and
browse
to
|||| <CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
|||| CD-ROM, For example, D.
||||
|||| 5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet
Explorer.
||||
|||| (NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if
you're
|||| on
|||| Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot
find
|||| in
|||| the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
|||| browse
|||| to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific
|||| files
|||| are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
mswrd632.wpc
|||| , which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
|||| Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be
located
|||| on
|||| a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the
i386
|||| folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
|||| WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
|||| repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
|||| WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe
line
|||| given above.)
||||
||||
|||| 5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing
IE6/OE6:
||||
|||| How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
|||| Windows
|||| XP (Q318378)
|||| http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378
||||
|||| --
|||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
|||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
|||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
||||
||||
||||
|||| |||||| ||||||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||||||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||||||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||||||
|||||| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of
|||| OS,
|||| it
|||||| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
|||| Users.
|||| And
|||||| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
|||| seem
|||| to
|||||| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||||||
|||||||
||||||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||||||| in
||||||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||||||
||||||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||||||
||||||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
|||| select
|||| the
||||||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
|||| Description
|||| of
||||||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||||||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
|||| (You
|||| may
||||||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed
afterwards,
BTW.)"
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the
way?
||||||
|||||| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the
AumHa
forum,
|||||| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|||||| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I
am
|||||| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
|||| with
|||| the
|||||| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS,
firewall,
|||| AV
|||| or
|||||| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|||||| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||||||
|||||| Jan
|||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| --
||||||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||||||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||||||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||||||
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| ||||||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from
my
post in
||||||||| her thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely
has
||||||||| changed. -- ~PA Bear
|||||||||
||||||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| Download and run:
|||||||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG
to
restore
|||||||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes.
You'll
||||||| have
||||||| to
|||||||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| ||||||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and
everything just
||||||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||||||
||||||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||||||
||||||||||| Jan
||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||||||
||||||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or
other
||||||||||| readers. How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||||||
|||||||||||
||||||||||| |||||||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour.
I see the
|||||||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it
|||| due
|||| to
|||||||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
|||| selections,
|||| Search
|||||||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and
when
I
||||||| tried
||||||| to
|||||||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I
clicked
|||| OK,
|||| it
|||||||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it
|||| was
|||| the
|||||||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
|||| Customize
||||||| is
||||||| as
|||||||||||| it was before.
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Jan
|||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||||||
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| ||||||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all.
They
have
||||||||||||| here. Why? I have no idea.
||||||||||||| --
||||||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how
or
|||| why.
|||| (This
|||||||||||||| may
|||||||||||||| have something to do with it:
||||||||||||||
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.) No,
|||||||||||||| there
|||||||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search
Assistant
back.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next" is
||||||||||||||| now
||||||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search
engine.
||||||| This
||||||| has
||||||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Jim Byrd · Mar 22, 2006

Hi Anna - Well, I said I was going to drop out of this thread, but since
you've specifically addressed me . . .

SpyBot S&D is well known and I doubt presents any problem, but you can try
disabling its Immunize functions as a test if you wish. As for Norton -
While their commercial software and specific virus/malware removal tools are
excellent, as a matter of experience I don't encourage anyone to use any of
the non-commercial Norton/Symantec software, as it's notorious for
interfering with other software (particularly on installs and with system
software generally) as well as being very difficult to completely remove.
If there's been any sort of recent update to it, I would be suspicious of
it. I would certainly test by disabling it for a period. (There have been
recent reports of other problems caused by a recent Norton update, BTW.) I
would take the same approach with respect to Windows Defender - just because
of it's Beta nature (although it's pretty stable apparently), and because it
does get involved with "protecting" certain IE settings as well as the fact
that it's a recent addition by your report.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| Jim, when I first noticed this problem, I had SpyBot search and destroy
|| immunize and Norton antivirus running. I now have added Windows
Defender
|| as suggested at AumHa forum. I have used the first two programs for
several
|| years.
|| Anna.
||
|| ||| Hi Jan - What types of "background" anti-malware might you be running
that
||| normally "protect" such settings? SpywareBlaster, Windows Defender,
||| Windows
||| Anti-Spyware, SpyBot S&D Immunize, etc.? (Windows Defender is what I
||| might
||| suspect as a Beta) You might try disabling any such, one at a time, to
||| see
||| if there's any effect.
|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| Hi all..
|||||
||||| Here is another curious/strange behavior. Last night when I made my
last
||||| report, all was as it should be and working well. I closed IE and
made no
||||| other changes to any settings.
|||||
||||| Just now, I opened the IE and checked the Search and Customization and
it
||||| had changed back to just the two choices and Loading.....
|||||
||||| So....as I reported previously here that there seemed to be a method
to the
||||| on -again-off-again madness, I closed IE, went to Start>Search>Change
||||| Preferences>Change Internet Search behavior>and saw that it had
changed back
||||| to With Classic search instead of the With Search Companion I had
||| changed
||| it
||||| to that last time. ???
|||||
||||| Then I selected the With Search Companion, closed the Search and
opened IE.
||||| The Search Companion window was there as it should be.
|||||
||||| Then I closed IE, reopened Search from the Start menu, and went to
Change
||||| Preferences> Change Internet Search behavior>reselected the With
Classic
||||| search, closed Search and reopened IE. There is the panel was the
normal
||||| search window, the Customize tab and grayed out Next button. When I
clicked
||||| the Customize button, there were the normal 3 choices and all related
list
||||| boxes, all worked as it should.
|||||
||||| I checked the laptop and the same change up had happened there even
||| with
||| the
||||| machine turned off, and with the same set of steps necessary to
restore the
||||| normal Customize window.
|||||
||||| Dang! This is really confusing! How the heck can we determine what is
||||| causing this when there seems to be a gremlin in the works making
changes
||||| all the time? Here is another aspect. I turned off the laptop,
although,
||||| it was still plugged in to the power supply. I did not turn off my
desktop,
||||| although, all programs were closed. Thus, I did not have reboot, or
||||| re-logon the desktop, but, did the laptop. Neither situation seemed
to make
||||| any difference.
|||||
||||| The only thing that I can think of at this point, and it may be off
the mark
||||| by a mile, is that it might have to do with the opening and closing of
IE,
||||| although, I did open and close the IE several times while testing last
||||| evening and there were no changes that took place on closing that I
could
||||| tell.
|||||
||||| However, at this point, I *can* make the normal Search Customize
||| choices
||| and
||||| selections available by doing the steps that I outlined above, and all
do
||||| work as they should. At least at this point. While it is a
round-robin
||||| effort, at least they do work for now, and hopefully, a step closer to
||||| finding a workaround.
|||||
||||| Perhaps Anna could test the steps that I posted here and see if they
work
||||| for her as well.
|||||
||||| Hope this helps.
|||||
||||| Jan

||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||
||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
||||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||| |||||| Hi all :-)

||||||
|||||| ||||||| Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE
||||||| exclusive
||||||| of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it
will
||||||| suggest something:
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
||||||| alternatives:
|||||||
||||||| First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
||||||| http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm
|||||||
||||||| Then try each of the following:
|||||||
||||||| 1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB
870700,
||||||| here:
||||||| How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with
Internet
||||||| Explorer 6 Service Pack 2,
||| http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
||||||| first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
||||||| related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most
part.
||||||| Check to see if your problem remains after each:
|||||||
||||||| a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
||||||| Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows.
This
||||||| new
||||||| feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker,
follow
||||||| these steps:
|||||||
||||||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
||||||| then
||||||| click the General tab.
||||||| 2) Click the Privacy tab.
||||||| 3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups
check
||||||| box.
||||||| 4) Click Apply.
||||||| 5) Click OK.
|||||||
||||||| b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
||||||| If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder,
the
||||||| page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must
||||||| delete
||||||| the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:
||||||
|||||||
||||||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
||||||| then
||||||| click the General tab.
||||||| 2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
||||||| 3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
||||||| 4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
||||||| 5) Click OK.
|||||||
||||||| c. Third-party browser extensions
||||||| Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with
how
||||||| Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these
extensions,
||||||| follow these steps:
|||||||
||||||| 1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click
Internet
||||||| Properties.
||||||| 2) Click the Advanced tab.
||||||| 3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions
(requires
||||||| restart) check box.
||||||| 4) Click Apply.
||||||| 5) Click Ok.
||||||| 6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.
||||||
|||||| OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
|||||| laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window
situation.
|||||| Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no change, b) no
change,
|||||| c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the Start>Search> and the
|||||| clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet search
behavior>selected
|||||| Classic search>selected my search engine and clicked OK. Then
clicked on
|||||| Search the Internet. When IE opened and the Search panel opened, the
word
|||||| Search was on the top of the search bar. Clicking the Customize
button
|||||| opened the customize window and there were 3 choices and two list
boxes,
|||||| as there should be. In this window the first selection, Search
Assistant
|||||| is now selected. I can change the selections and new list boxes
appear
|||||| for each different choice selected as they should. I can change the
|||||| choices and selection, however, I must close and reopen IE after each
|||||| change for it to take effect. All appears to be working as it
should,
|||||| with the
|||||| exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.
||||||
|||||| However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here
as a
|||||| possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has
occurred, as
|||||| things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this
problem
|||||| for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fix or
not
|||||| until some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make
changes,
|||||| which I was not able to do before, even when it appeared that things
were
|||||| normal.
||||||
|||||| I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order
to
|||||| see what will happen in the next 24 hours.
||||||
|||||| I hope this helps.
||||||
|||||| Jan

||||||
|||||||
||||||| d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:
|||||||
||||||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
||||||| then
||||||| click the Security tab.
||||||| 2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
||||||| 3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
||||||| 4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
||||||| 5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
||||||| 6) Click Apply.
||||||| 7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.
|||||||
||||||| 2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type
"sfc
||||||| /scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and
the
||||||| /.)
||||||| Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it
||||||| takes a
||||||| while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot
more,
||||||| that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does
NOT,
||||||| however, re-register the various software components, and you will
need
||||||| to
||||||| do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as
replaced
||||||| in
||||||| Event Viewer|System.
|||||||
||||||| Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see
mskb
||||||| 814510,
||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510)
||||||| sfc
||||||| can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files
from
||||||| certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This
may
||||||| also
||||||| apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd
window and
||||||| enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
||||||| qfecheck
||||||| installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
||||||| http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and
for
||||||| Win2k
||||||| here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470 A
||||||| version stated to be common to both is available here:
|||||||
|||
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
||||||| Further information about qfecheck is
||||||| available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/
|||||||
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| 3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||||||| in
||||||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||||||
||||||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||||||
||||||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
select
||||||| the
||||||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
||| Description
||| of
||||||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||||||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
||| (You
||||||| may
||||||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)
|||||||
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| 4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
||||||| consider the following:
|||||||
||||||| 1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
||||||| 2) Click Start, and click Run.
||||||| 3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown -
it's
||||||| case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in
Windows
||||||| on
||||||| your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular
||||||| situation.)
|||||||
||||||| rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
||||||| c:\windows\inf\ie.inf
|||||||
||||||| 4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and
||| browse
||| to
||||||| <CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of
the
||||||| CD-ROM, For example, D

.
|||||||
||||||| 5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet
Explorer.
|||||||
||||||| (NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if
you're
||||||| on
||||||| Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot
find
||||||| in
||||||| the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need
to
||||||| browse
||||||| to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific
||||||| files
||||||| are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
mswrd632.wpc
||||||| , which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
||||||| Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be
located
||||||| on
||||||| a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the
i386
||||||| folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
||||||| WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able
to
||||||| repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
||||||| WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe
line
||||||| given above.)
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| 5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing
IE6/OE6:
|||||||
||||||| How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
||||||| Windows
||||||| XP (Q318378)
||||||| http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378
|||||||
||||||| --
||||||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||||||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||||||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||||||
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| ||||||||| |||||||||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread
something's clearly
|||||||||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
|||||||||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
|||||||||
||||||||| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type
of
||||||| OS,
||||||| it
||||||||| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
||||||| Users.
||||||| And
||||||||| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It
does
||||||| seem
||||||| to
||||||||| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
|||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have
IE6 listed
|||||||||| in
|||||||||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
||||||||||
|||||||||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
||||||||||
|||||||||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
||||||| select
||||||| the
|||||||||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
||||||| Description
||||||| of
|||||||||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
|||||||||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
||||||| (You
||||||| may
|||||||||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed
||| afterwards,
||| BTW.)"
||||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the
way?
|||||||||
||||||||| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the
||| AumHa
||| forum,
||||||||| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did
not resolve
||||||||| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I
am
||||||||| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a
problem
||||||| with
||||||| the
||||||||| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS,
||| firewall,
||||||| AV
||||||| or
||||||||| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
||||||||| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
|||||||||
||||||||| Jan

||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
||||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| --
|||||||||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
|||||||||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
|||||||||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
||||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
|||||||||| |||||||||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from
||| my
||| post in
|||||||||||| her thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something"
definitely has
|||||||||||| changed. -- ~PA Bear
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
||||||||||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
|||||||||||||
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| Download and run:
||||||||||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG
||| to
||| restore
||||||||||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes.
||| You'll
|||||||||| have
|||||||||| to
||||||||||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
|||||||||||||
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was
earlier this
|||||||||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and
everything just
|||||||||||||| hangs up again.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Jan

|||||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or
other
|||||||||||||| readers. How to make a good newsgroup post:
|||||||||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last
hour. I see
||||||||||||||| the same search list I did a few days ago when I first
checked it
||||||| due
||||||| to
||||||||||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
||||||| selections,
||||||| Search
||||||||||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and
||| when
||| I
|||||||||| tried
|||||||||| to
||||||||||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I
||| clicked
||||||| OK,
||||||| it
||||||||||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in
it
||||||| was
||||||| the
||||||||||||||| search window and the GO button.
|||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
||||||| Customize
|||||||||| is
|||||||||| as
||||||||||||||| it was before.
|||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||| Jan

||||||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all.
||| They
||| have
|||||||||||||||| here. Why? I have no idea.
|||||||||||||||| --
|||||||||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
|||||||||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
||||||||||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
|||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how
||| or
||||||| why.
||||||| (This
||||||||||||||||| may
||||||||||||||||| have something to do with it:
|||||||||||||||||
||| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.) No,
||||||||||||||||| there
||||||||||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search
||| Assistant
||| back.
|||||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
|||||||||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right
anymore. "Next"
|||||||||||||||||| is now
|||||||||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search
||| engine.
|||||||||| This
|||||||||| has
|||||||||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Jan Il · Mar 22, 2006

Hi Anna ;-)

The steps seen to work as you stated, except when I open search in IE and
select customize, then select search assistant, I am not given any choises
to select the search agents that I want. The other two choises seem to
work as they should. Next button is always greyed out for me. So far
today I am given three choises when selecting customize search from IE.
This site describes what I am looking for. I feel like I am going in
circles with this.
http://www.internet-explorer-tutorials.com/best-search-engines-choices.html

Thank you for testing to see if the steps worked for you as they did for me.
I think at this point, we seem to have similar results from the various
tests and fix suggestions, as well as individual tests, as to what does and
does not work on both ends. I don't know if that means anything or provides
any help, but, it does seem to indicate that there is a sequence of events
that will re-enable the Search to work as it should. It would appear that
for some reason, the normal sequence of events is being disrupted somehow,
somewhere.

But, at least we do know how to make it work again from within the Search
functions, for a while anyway, until it somehow gets changed again, except
for the grayed out Next button. It would be good to know if anyone else who
has posted with the same problem might also have had the same results.

Me...I ran out of circles 2 days ago! I'm on lopsided ovals now. :-)

Thanks again for you time and help for do some backup testing. I really
appreciate it. :-)

Bear? Jim? Robert? Any more suggestions? I don't have any idea where to
go from here.

Jan

MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.

Jan Il said:
Jan Il said:

Hi all..

Here is another curious/strange behavior. Last night when I made my last
report, all was as it should be and working well. I closed IE and made
no other changes to any settings.

Just now, I opened the IE and checked the Search and Customization and it
had changed back to just the two choices and Loading.....

So....as I reported previously here that there seemed to be a method to
the on -again-off-again madness, I closed IE, went to Start>Search>Change
Preferences>Change Internet Search behavior>and saw that it had changed
back to With Classic search instead of the With Search Companion I had
changed it to that last time. ???

Then I selected the With Search Companion, closed the Search and opened
IE. The Search Companion window was there as it should be.

Then I closed IE, reopened Search from the Start menu, and went to
Change Preferences> Change Internet Search behavior>reselected the With
Classic search, closed Search and reopened IE. There is the panel was
the normal search window, the Customize tab and grayed out Next button.
When I clicked the Customize button, there were the normal 3 choices and
all related list boxes, all worked as it should.

I checked the laptop and the same change up had happened there even with
the machine turned off, and with the same set of steps necessary to
restore the normal Customize window.

Dang! This is really confusing! How the heck can we determine what is
causing this when there seems to be a gremlin in the works making changes
all the time? Here is another aspect. I turned off the laptop,
although, it was still plugged in to the power supply. I did not turn
off my desktop, although, all programs were closed. Thus, I did not have
reboot, or re-logon the desktop, but, did the laptop. Neither situation
seemed to make any difference.

The only thing that I can think of at this point, and it may be off the
mark by a mile, is that it might have to do with the opening and closing
of IE, although, I did open and close the IE several times while testing
last evening and there were no changes that took place on closing that I
could tell.

However, at this point, I *can* make the normal Search Customize choices
and selections available by doing the steps that I outlined above, and
all do work as they should. At least at this point. While it is a
round-robin effort, at least they do work for now, and hopefully, a step
closer to finding a workaround.

Perhaps Anna could test the steps that I posted here and see if they work
for her as well.

Hope this helps.

Jan
MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
Smiles are meant to be shared,
that's why they're so contagious.

Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
readers.
How to make a good newsgroup post:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

Jan Il said:

Hi all

Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE
exclusive
of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it
will
suggest something:

There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
alternatives:

First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

Then try each of the following:

1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB 870700,
here:
How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
Explorer 6 Service Pack 2, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most
part.
Check to see if your problem remains after each:

a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows.
This new
feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker,
follow
these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click the Privacy tab.
3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups
check
box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click OK.

b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder,
the
page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must
delete
the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the General tab.
2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
5) Click OK.

c. Third-party browser extensions
Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with how
Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these
extensions,
follow these steps:

1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Internet
Properties.
2) Click the Advanced tab.
3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
restart) check box.
4) Click Apply.
5) Click Ok.
6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.

OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window
situation. Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no change,
b) no change, c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the
Start>Search> and the clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet
search behavior>selected Classic search>selected my search engine and
clicked OK. Then clicked on Search the Internet. When IE opened and
the Search panel opened, the word Search was on the top of the search
bar. Clicking the Customize button opened the customize window and there
were 3 choices and two list boxes, as there should be. In this window
the first selection, Search Assistant is now selected. I can change the
selections and new list boxes appear for each different choice selected
as they should. I can change the choices and selection, however, I must
close and reopen IE after each change for it to take effect. All
appears to be working as it should, with the
exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.

However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here as a
possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has occurred,
as things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this
problem for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fix
or not until some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make
changes, which I was not able to do before, even when it appeared that
things were normal.

I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order to
see what will happen in the next 24 hours.

I hope this helps.

Jan

d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:

1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, and
then
click the Security tab.
2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
6) Click Apply.
7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.

2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type
"sfc
/scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and
the /.)
Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it
takes a
while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot
more,
that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
however, re-register the various software components, and you will need
to
do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as replaced
in
Event Viewer|System.

Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see mskb
814510,
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510) sfc
can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files
from
certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may
also
apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window
and
enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
qfecheck
installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and for
Win2k
here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470
A
version stated to be common to both is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
Further information about qfecheck is
available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/

3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed in
Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter

"rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"

without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and select
the
appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here: Description
of
the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177 (You
may
have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)

4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
consider the following:

1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
2) Click Start, and click Run.
3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown -
it's
case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in
Windows on
your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular
situation.)

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
c:\windows\inf\ie.inf

4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and browse
to
<CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
CD-ROM, For example, D.

5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet
Explorer.

(NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if
you're on
Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot
find in
the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
browse
to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific
files
are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
mswrd632.wpc
, which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be
located on
a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the
i386
folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe line
given above.)

5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing
IE6/OE6:

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
Windows
XP (Q318378)
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| ||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||
|| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of
OS,
it
|| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
Users.
And
|| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
seem
to
|| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||
|||
||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||| in
||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||
||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||
||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
select
the
||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
Description
of
||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
(You
may
||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
BTW.)"
|||
|||
||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the way?
||
|| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the
AumHa
forum,
|| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I am
|| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
with
the
|| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS, firewall,
AV
or
|| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||
|| Jan
|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||
|||
||| --
||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||
|||
|||
||| ||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from
my
post in her
||||| thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely has
changed. --
||||| ~PA Bear
|||||
||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||
||||||
|||||| Download and run:
|||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG to
restore
|||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes.
You'll
||| have
||| to
|||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||
||||||
|||||| ||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and
everything
just
||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||
||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||
||||||| Jan
||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||
||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or
other
readers.
||||||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||
|||||||
||||||| |||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour.
I
see the
|||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it
due
to
|||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
selections,
Search
|||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and when
I
||| tried
||| to
|||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I
clicked OK,
it
|||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it
was
the
|||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||
|||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
Customize
||| is
||| as
|||||||| it was before.
||||||||
|||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||
|||||||| Jan
|||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||
||||||||
|||||||| ||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all.
They
have here.
||||||||| Why? I have no idea.
||||||||| --
||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||
||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||
|||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how or
why.
(This
|||||||||| may
|||||||||| have something to do with it:
||||||||||
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.)
No,
|||||||||| there
|||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search Assistant
back.
||||||||||
|||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next" is
||||||||||| now
||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search
engine.
||| This
||| has
||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Jim Byrd · Mar 22, 2006

Hi Jan - Did you see my post from yesterday concerning anti-malware
protection programs which might be causing the reversion of the setting(s),
and my reply to Anna today on that subject?

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/

|| Hi Anna ;-)
||
||| The steps seen to work as you stated, except when I open search in IE
and
||| select customize, then select search assistant, I am not given any
choises
||| to select the search agents that I want. The other two choises seem to
||| work as they should. Next button is always greyed out for me. So far
||| today I am given three choises when selecting customize search from IE.
||| This site describes what I am looking for. I feel like I am going in
||| circles with this.
|||
http://www.internet-explorer-tutorials.com/best-search-engines-choices.html
||
|| Thank you for testing to see if the steps worked for you as they did for
me.
|| I think at this point, we seem to have similar results from the various
|| tests and fix suggestions, as well as individual tests, as to what does
and
|| does not work on both ends. I don't know if that means anything or
provides
|| any help, but, it does seem to indicate that there is a sequence of
events
|| that will re-enable the Search to work as it should. It would appear
that
|| for some reason, the normal sequence of events is being disrupted
somehow,
|| somewhere.
||
|| But, at least we do know how to make it work again from within the Search
|| functions, for a while anyway, until it somehow gets changed again,
except
|| for the grayed out Next button. It would be good to know if anyone else
who
|| has posted with the same problem might also have had the same results.
||
|| Me...I ran out of circles 2 days ago! I'm on lopsided ovals now. :-)

||
|| Thanks again for you time and help for do some backup testing. I really
|| appreciate it. :-)

||
|| Bear? Jim? Robert? Any more suggestions? I don't have any idea where
to
|| go from here.
||
|| Jan

|| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|| that's why they're so contagious.
||
||
||
||
|||
|||
|||
||| |||| Hi all..
||||
|||| Here is another curious/strange behavior. Last night when I made my
last
|||| report, all was as it should be and working well. I closed IE and made
|||| no other changes to any settings.
||||
|||| Just now, I opened the IE and checked the Search and Customization and
it
|||| had changed back to just the two choices and Loading.....
||||
|||| So....as I reported previously here that there seemed to be a method to
|||| the on -again-off-again madness, I closed IE, went to
Start>Search>Change
|||| Preferences>Change Internet Search behavior>and saw that it had changed
|||| back to With Classic search instead of the With Search Companion I had
|||| changed it to that last time. ???
||||
|||| Then I selected the With Search Companion, closed the Search and opened
|||| IE. The Search Companion window was there as it should be.
||||
|||| Then I closed IE, reopened Search from the Start menu, and went to
|||| Change Preferences> Change Internet Search behavior>reselected the With
|||| Classic search, closed Search and reopened IE. There is the panel was
|||| the normal search window, the Customize tab and grayed out Next button.
|||| When I clicked the Customize button, there were the normal 3 choices
and
|||| all related list boxes, all worked as it should.
||||
|||| I checked the laptop and the same change up had happened there even
with
|||| the machine turned off, and with the same set of steps necessary to
|||| restore the normal Customize window.
||||
|||| Dang! This is really confusing! How the heck can we determine what is
|||| causing this when there seems to be a gremlin in the works making
changes
|||| all the time? Here is another aspect. I turned off the laptop,
|||| although, it was still plugged in to the power supply. I did not turn
|||| off my desktop, although, all programs were closed. Thus, I did not
have
|||| reboot, or re-logon the desktop, but, did the laptop. Neither
situation
|||| seemed to make any difference.
||||
|||| The only thing that I can think of at this point, and it may be off the
|||| mark by a mile, is that it might have to do with the opening and
closing
|||| of IE, although, I did open and close the IE several times while
testing
|||| last evening and there were no changes that took place on closing that
I
|||| could tell.
||||
|||| However, at this point, I *can* make the normal Search Customize
choices
|||| and selections available by doing the steps that I outlined above, and
|||| all do work as they should. At least at this point. While it is a
|||| round-robin effort, at least they do work for now, and hopefully, a
step
|||| closer to finding a workaround.
||||
|||| Perhaps Anna could test the steps that I posted here and see if they
work
|||| for her as well.
||||
|||| Hope this helps.
||||
|||| Jan

|||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||
|||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or other
|||| readers.
|||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
|||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
||||
||||
||||
|||| ||||| Hi all :-)

|||||
||||| |||||| Hi Jan - Well, the single common element you describe is core IE
|||||| exclusive
|||||| of SP1 or 2. Here's my full "fix IE" post - maybe something in it
|||||| will
|||||| suggest something:
||||||
||||||
|||||| There is no direct Repair function for IE6 in XP. Here are some
|||||| alternatives:
||||||
|||||| First try this courtesy of MVP Ramesh Srinivasan:
|||||| http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm
||||||
|||||| Then try each of the following:
||||||
|||||| 1. If you're on XP SP2, try the following suggestions from KB
870700,
|||||| here:
|||||| How to troubleshoot problems accessing secure Web pages with Internet
|||||| Explorer 6 Service Pack 2,
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=870700#9
|||||| first. Don't worry that your problem isn't specifically secure-page
|||||| related - these extracted below are general fix steps for the most
|||||| part.
|||||| Check to see if your problem remains after each:
||||||
|||||| a. Turn off the pop-up blocker
|||||| Internet Explorer SP2 includes the ability to block pop-up windows.
|||||| This new
|||||| feature may block some Web pages. To turn off the Pop-Up Blocker,
|||||| follow
|||||| these steps:
||||||
|||||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
|||||| then
|||||| click the General tab.
|||||| 2) Click the Privacy tab.
|||||| 3) In the Pop-Up Blocker section, click to clear the Block pop-ups
|||||| check
|||||| box.
|||||| 4) Click Apply.
|||||| 5) Click OK.
||||||
|||||| b. Delete the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder
|||||| If a copy of the Web page is in the Temporary Internet Files folder,
|||||| the
|||||| page may not display as expected. To resolve this problem, you must
|||||| delete
|||||| the contents of this folder. To do this, follow these steps:
|||||
||||||
|||||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
|||||| then
|||||| click the General tab.
|||||| 2) Click Delete Cookies, and then click OK.
|||||| 3) Click Delete Files, and then click OK.
|||||| 4) Click Clear History, and then click Yes.
|||||| 5) Click OK.
||||||
|||||| c. Third-party browser extensions
|||||| Some third-party browser extensions and add-ons may interfere with
how
|||||| Internet Explorer views certain Web pages. To turn off these
|||||| extensions,
|||||| follow these steps:
||||||
|||||| 1) Click Start, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click
Internet
|||||| Properties.
|||||| 2) Click the Advanced tab.
|||||| 3) Click to clear the Enable third-party browser extensions (requires
|||||| restart) check box.
|||||| 4) Click Apply.
|||||| 5) Click Ok.
|||||| 6) Start Internet Explorer, and then try to reproduce the issue.
|||||
||||| OK...here's the last update thus far. After running the IEFix on the
||||| laptop, there was no change in the status of the Search window
||||| situation. Thus, I proceeded with the next 3 steps above: a) no
change,
||||| b) no change, c) unchecked and then closed IE. I went to the
||||| Start>Search> and the clicked the Change Preferences>Change Internet
||||| search behavior>selected Classic search>selected my search engine and
||||| clicked OK. Then clicked on Search the Internet. When IE opened and
||||| the Search panel opened, the word Search was on the top of the search
||||| bar. Clicking the Customize button opened the customize window and
there
||||| were 3 choices and two list boxes, as there should be. In this window
||||| the first selection, Search Assistant is now selected. I can change
the
||||| selections and new list boxes appear for each different choice
selected
||||| as they should. I can change the choices and selection, however, I
must
||||| close and reopen IE after each change for it to take effect. All
||||| appears to be working as it should, with the
||||| exception of the Next button, which remains grayed out.
|||||
||||| However, I don't think that we can look at what has transpired here as
a
||||| possible solution until at least 24 hours without change has occurred,
||||| as things continue to change on and off as a matter of course in this
||||| problem for the past week or more. So I won't know if it is a good fi
x
||||| or not until some time has passed. But, at last now I am able to make
||||| changes, which I was not able to do before, even when it appeared that
||||| things were normal.
|||||
||||| I did not proceed with the other steps below at this point, in order
to
||||| see what will happen in the next 24 hours.
|||||
||||| I hope this helps.
|||||
||||| Jan

|||||
||||||
|||||| d. Reset the Security Zones to the default settings:
||||||
|||||| 1) On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options,
and
|||||| then
|||||| click the Security tab.
|||||| 2) Click Internet, and then click Default Level.
|||||| 3) Click Local Intranet, and then click Default Level.
|||||| 4) Click Trusted sites, and then click Default Level.
|||||| 5) Click Restricted sites, and then click Default Level.
|||||| 6) Click Apply.
|||||| 7) On the Privacy tab, click Default, and then click Apply.
||||||
|||||| 2. Then you need to go (as an Administrator) to Start|Run and type
|||||| "sfc
|||||| /scannow" (without the quotes and notice the space between the c and
|||||| the /.)
|||||| Have your XP CD handy and be prepared to go get a cup of coffee - it
|||||| takes a
|||||| while. This will do the same thing as Repair IE6 for XP but a lot
|||||| more,
|||||| that is find any corrupt system files and replace them. It does NOT,
|||||| however, re-register the various software components, and you will
need
|||||| to
|||||| do this manually using regsvr32.exe if any are shown as
replaced
|||||| in
|||||| Event Viewer|System.
||||||
|||||| Be aware that under certain circumstances (Win2k before SP4 - see
mskb
|||||| 814510,
|||||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q814510) sfc
|||||| can erroneously overwrite (restore over) previously installed files
|||||| from
|||||| certain "hotfixes" which will then need to be re-installed. This may
|||||| also
|||||| apply to XP. To check for this, after running sfc, open a Cmd window
|||||| and
|||||| enter "qfecheck /v /l:c:\" (without the quotes). If you don't have
|||||| qfecheck
|||||| installed, it can be obtained for XP here:
|||||| http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35468 and
for
|||||| Win2k
|||||| here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=35470
|||||| A
|||||| version stated to be common to both is available here:
||||||
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=155C7C58-102E-47B0-A12A-BFAB8CFCCC03
|||||| Further information about qfecheck is
|||||| available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282784/EN/
||||||
||||||
||||||
|||||| 3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
|||||| listed in
|||||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
||||||
|||||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
||||||
|||||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
select
|||||| the
|||||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
Description
|||||| of
|||||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
|||||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
(You
|||||| may
|||||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed afterwards,
|||||| BTW.)
||||||
||||||
||||||
|||||| 4. If you find that you need to do a re-install of IE6 then you can
|||||| consider the following:
||||||
|||||| 1) Insert the Windows installation CD in your CD-ROM drive.
|||||| 2) Click Start, and click Run.
|||||| 3) Copy the command prompt below in the Open box (exactly as shown -
|||||| it's
|||||| case sensitive), and click OK. (Assumes %System% is installed in
|||||| Windows on
|||||| your C:\ partition. Change as appropriate for your particular
|||||| situation.)
||||||
|||||| rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132
|||||| c:\windows\inf\ie.inf
||||||
|||||| 4) It will display a "File Needed" screen, click "Browse.." and
browse
|||||| to
|||||| <CD-ROM drive>\i386, (where <CD-ROM drive> is the drive letter of the
|||||| CD-ROM, For example, D

.
||||||
|||||| 5) Click Open, click Ok, it should begin reinstalling Internet
|||||| Explorer.
||||||
|||||| (NOTE: It has been reported, courtesy of Steve Wechsler, that if
|||||| you're on
|||||| Windows XP Pro SP2, it may prompt you for some files that it cannot
|||||| find in
|||||| the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, which you'll then need to
|||||| browse
|||||| to. It's thought that this may apply to XP Home also. The specific
|||||| files
|||||| are iexplore.exe which actually IS in the i386 folder,
|||||| mswrd632.wpc
|||||| , which is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
|||||| Shared\TextConv folder, AND, INSTALL.IN_ , which will be
|||||| located on
|||||| a slipstreamed XP Pro CD in the i386 folder and also located in the
|||||| i386
|||||| folder on an XP Pro SP1 disk. So, copying the 2 files above to the
|||||| WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder should allow you to be able to
|||||| repair/reinstall IE on an SP2 system by right clicking ie.inf in the
|||||| WINDOWS\inf folder and selecting Install or using the rundll32.exe
line
|||||| given above.)
||||||
||||||
|||||| 5. Lastly, here is a link to a MSKB article about re-installing
|||||| IE6/OE6:
||||||
|||||| How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in
|||||| Windows
|||||| XP (Q318378)
|||||| http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q318378
||||||
|||||| --
|||||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
|||||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
|||||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
||||||
||||||
||||||
|||||| |||||||| ||||||||| Yeah, I agree Bear - looking at the rest of the thread something's
clearly
||||||||| out of kilter beyond a normal .reg reset. I wonder if a
Tools|Internet
||||||||| Options|Programs| "Reset Web Settings" or a Repair IE:
||||||||
|||||||| The one thing that gets me is that is it not limited to one type of
|||||| OS,
|||||| it
|||||||| seems to be affecting them all across the board, and yet, not all
|||||| Users.
|||||| And
|||||||| it comes and goes. So....how the heck do you nail it down? It does
|||||| seem
|||||| to
|||||||| be Internet generated, but, why not all Users?
||||||||
|||||||||
||||||||| "3. Another alternative for just IE6 repair if you don't have IE6
listed
||||||||| in
||||||||| Add-Remove Programs, then in Start|Run then enter
|||||||||
||||||||| "rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance"
|||||||||
||||||||| without the quotes, exactly as shown (it's case sensitive), and
|||||| select
|||||| the
||||||||| appropriate entry. More detailed info is available here:
|||||| Description
|||||| of
||||||||| the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
||||||||| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q194177
|||||| (You
|||||| may
||||||||| have to re-install Sun Java JRE if you had it installed
afterwards, BTW.)"
|||||||||
|||||||||
||||||||| would work, or has this already been tried somewhere along the
way?
||||||||
|||||||| IIRC, somewhere along the way in one of the threads here or the
|||||| AumHa
|||||| forum,
|||||||| I or someone else did recommend doing a repair, and AIRC it did not
resolve
|||||||| the problem. I am really pretty sure at this point, given that I
am
|||||||| experiencing the same situation as the OPs that is it not a problem
|||||| with
|||||| the
|||||||| PC's, program or update. We are not all using the same OS,
firewall,
|||||| AV
|||||| or
|||||||| other such programs, the only link is IE. However, there too, is a
|||||||| difference, as some only have IE6 SP1, and some of us have IE SP2.
????
||||||||
|||||||| Jan

|||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa
|||||||||
|||||||||
||||||||| --
||||||||| Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
||||||||| My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
||||||||| http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
|||||||||
|||||||||
|||||||||
||||||||| ||||||||||| It didn't do what "Anna" wanted it to do when she tried it from
|||||| my
|||||| post in her
||||||||||| thread at Aumha Forums, Jim. I think "something" definitely has
||||||||||| changed. -- ~PA Bear
|||||||||||
||||||||||| Jim Byrd wrote:
|||||||||||| Hi Jan - Did you try my .reg file on this?
||||||||||||
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| Download and run:
|||||||||||| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG
to restore
|||||||||||| your default Search functionality and reset your prefixes.
|||||| You'll
||||||||| have
||||||||| to
|||||||||||| manually re-select any Search Customizations you may have had,
however.
||||||||||||
||||||||||||
|||||||||||| ||||||||||||| As of this time, the Search has changed back to it was earlier
this
||||||||||||| morning. None of the Customize settings will work, and
|||||| everything
|||||| just
||||||||||||| hangs up again.
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| Hope this helps.
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| Jan

||||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
||||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
||||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| Replies are posted only to the newsgroup for the benefit or
|||||| other
|||||| readers.
||||||||||||| How to make a good newsgroup post:
||||||||||||| http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
|||||||||||||
|||||||||||||
||||||||||||| |||||||||||||| They just now changed here, or at least within the last hour.
|||||| I
|||||| see the
|||||||||||||| same search list I did a few days ago when I first checked it
|||||| due
|||||| to
|||||||||||||| Anna's post. It then changed the Customize to only two
|||||| selections,
|||||| Search
|||||||||||||| Assistant and Use one search service. No list boxes, and
when
|||||| I
||||||||| tried
||||||||| to
|||||||||||||| select one of the choices, they would not work. When I
|||||| clicked OK,
|||||| it
|||||||||||||| just brought the search list up again, and all that was in it
|||||| was
|||||| the
|||||||||||||| search window and the GO button.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Now, I see the same Search window in the panel, but, the
|||||| Customize
||||||||| is
||||||||| as
|||||||||||||| it was before.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Hope this helps.
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| Jan

|||||||||||||| MS MVP - Windows IE/OE [DTS/AumHa]
|||||||||||||| Smiles are meant to be shared,
|||||||||||||| that's why they're so contagious.
||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||| ||||||||||||||| Check again today and see if things have changed at all.
|||||| They
|||||| have here.
||||||||||||||| Why? I have no idea.
||||||||||||||| --
||||||||||||||| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
||||||||||||||| MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Security, Shell/User)
|||||||||||||||
||||||||||||||| PA Bear wrote:
|||||||||||||||| See these recent threads: http://snipurl.com/f05w
||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||| Yes, Search Assistant has changed. No, we don't know how
or
|||||| why.
|||||| (This
|||||||||||||||| may
|||||||||||||||| have something to do with it:
||||||||||||||||
|||||| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/260821_msftads25.html.)
|||||| No,
|||||||||||||||| there
|||||||||||||||| doesn't seem to be a way of getting the old Search
Assistant back.
||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||||| Steve Horrillo wrote:
||||||||||||||||| I notice the Search Assistant isn't working right anymore.
"Next"
||||||||||||||||| is now
||||||||||||||||| greyed out and will only let me use one chosen search
|||||| engine.
||||||||| This
||||||||| has
||||||||||||||||| happened on my XP as well as my Win 2000 machine. What's
wrong?