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My "Search Companion" window comes up empty and I can't search. How do I fix it?

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Summary: The Search Companion window sometimes disappears or comes up empty, making searching difficult or impossible. There are a couple of possible solutions.

My "Search Companion" window comes up empty and I can't search. How do I fix it?

"Search Companion" is the name of the left hand pane that appears in the Search Window under Windows XP when you select Search, For Files or Folders... The name "companion" comes from the animated puppy - your "companion"- that many people turn off immediately.

Sometimes the search companion pane is blank or gone completely, leaving you without a way to search. A couple of things could be going on.

The first thing that may have happened is kind of strange. The search companion pane can be closed by clicking the close control (small X) in its upper right hand corner. Once done, I've not been able to find a way to re-open it! Fortunately closing the Search window, and then selecting Start, Search, and then For Files or Folders re-opens the Search window with the companion pane restored.

That one took me by surprise. However I was also surprised by the other possible source of a problem: jscript.dll.

Apparently if this file is missing, corrupt, or not properly registered with the operating system several dialogs are affected including Search Companion, User Accounts, Windows Update, Help and Support, and System Restore.

Microsoft has provided a knowledgebase article on the topic, creatively titled: Several dialog boxes are blank. This details a couple of methods that should restore the proper functionality.

Related:

Article 196 | Posted May 12, 2004

Recent Comments
59 Comments

Thnxxxxxxxxxxxxxx soooooooooo much !!

This regsvr32 thingy re-registering on page 5 works and FIXED my PC !

This happened to me when after removing AVAST! Home FREE edition ! Beware and dont install that
Antivirus app !!

But now PC is Running smooth !

Bravo for LEO !!

Thanx again !!

Posted by: flankey at April 2, 2008 2:18 PM

My search companion return blank too. It help me fix my problem too. Thank you very much!

Ng Tuyen.

Posted by: Tuyen Ng at May 12, 2008 1:14 AM

Dear Mr. Leo,

I have OpenOffice version running in RedHat environment, but I am really borring when I start up OpenOffice. Sothat, could you help me solve this issue above "Why OpenOffice Start-up too slow" and HOWTO fix this problem.

Thank you so much and I hope receive your respond soon

Best & Regards

LY KHOA TUAN
email: tuanlyk@yahoo.co.uk

Posted by: KHOATUAN LY at May 29, 2008 1:00 AM

Wo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oW that's great ;)
it's really help me.
Thanks a lot

START -- > RUN --->

regsvr32 wshom.ocx
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 urlmon.dll

Posted by: Amirhossein at May 30, 2008 5:27 AM

You are life savers, thank you so much!

Posted by: Jack at July 25, 2008 8:55 AM

START -- > RUN --->
regsvr32 wshom.ocx
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 urlmon.dll


Note: regsvr32 jscript.dll alone did not help.
All three dlls had to be registered.

Also, I had to restart my PC to make it work.

Thanks a lot for the great help.

jun

Posted by: Jun at July 28, 2008 12:58 PM

Great fix,Thanhs

Posted by: Lee Haberkamp at August 2, 2008 2:23 PM

Wow! This was really useful. After spending 4+ hours, trying to practically re-install stuff, and following Microsoft guides, etc. when nothing seemed to help, this has come as a big relief.
Thanks a ton!!

Posted by: S. Bobde at August 3, 2008 3:39 AM

START -- > RUN --->
regsvr32 wshom.ocx
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 urlmon.dll

Hey Thanks ... You solved my Problem ...

Posted by: Keerthesh at August 21, 2008 9:32 PM

Thank you verry much it worked like a charm!!!!!

Posted by: junior at November 2, 2008 6:26 PM

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