Following problems caused by Firefox 3 with Vista SP1, I had a major problem with Windows Search
Why I need Windows Search
Windows Search is an key part of the way I work.
It enables rapid search of
- Emails from within Outlook
- OneNote documents
Symptoms of the problem
These include:
- You cannot search for emails in outlook
- OneNote searching is slow.
What’s the cause
The Windows Search service has failed to start and this has generated the problem. You can see the status of the Windows Search service by entering ‘Services’ (no quote) in the Vista search bar.
When all is working ok you will see:
However if you have this problem you’ll not see “started”.
What we tried
We made these attempts to solve the problem. Most were based on searches of user groups
- Click Start (top left of services dialog box) – seems to start then gives an error (sometimes error code 2147218141). Looking at error logs you may see “Windows Search Service terminated unexpectedly”
- System Restore – no effect
- Ran Windows File Checker – no effect
- Ensured HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows
Search\SetupCompletedSuccessfully set to 0 – no effect - Tried various suggestions involving files gathrprm.txt and schema.txt – no effect
This worked !
Much to my surprise all was well after re-installing Windows Search 4. Use the link below to access the correct download.
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=940157
This only installs on Vista if you have successfully upgraded to SP1.
If this doesn’t work you may need to uninstall Vista Search 4 first.
You can do this by going to Windows Update…
- Select View Update History.
- Then click “Installed Updates”. This will take you updates that can be uninstalled.
- Select Windows Search 4 from the list and click uninstall:
search
