RE: Search & System Restore not working



"SeamusPDX" wrote:

> Several evenings ago, it seemed like something was downloading that should
> not have been and then a message popped up, something like “do you want to
> install something poker” now. I declined and figured it was adware. I ran
> spybot, adaware, hijack this and Norton anti-virus and found and removed the
> suggested items-including one or two funny looking items via Hijackthis.
> Then I wanted to go to “Search” and see what files had been added to my
> computer that night to see if there was anything suspicious that I should
> remove. When I clicked on search, I got a message “A file that is needed to
> run search companion cannot be found. You may need to run set up.” The
> search mechanism won’t work beyond that point. (I checked the Windows and
> Program folders by clicking down from the My Computer icon and the only file
> I could find that had downloaded at about the time the problem surfaced was
> “setupapi”, but I think this is a normal windows update file, correct?)
>
> Once this happened I figured there might be a virus or spyware or something
> that could not be reached other than from safe mode, with system restore
> turned off. However, when I tried to check the turn off system restore
> button, I received message “System Restore encountered an error trying to
> enable disable one or more drives. Please restart your machine and try
> again.” (Restarting did not work.) MS has a page on the search companion
> issue, with three solutions, but they have not worked for me because I
> already have Windows XP SP2 installed, the hot fix is older than Windows XP
> SP2, and my efforts to reinstall srchasst.inf apparently did not take. I
> also attempted to correct by Start/Run/Okay regarding jscript.dll,
> vbscript.dll, and urlmon.dll. Additionally, for what it is worth, Norton
> Windoc indicates I am missing “mscoree.dll”, stating “C:\Program Files\Common
> Files\Install Shield\Professsional Runtime\0701\Intel32\Dot Net
> Installer.exe” cannot access it.
>
> I considered using system restore to return my settings to a time when the
> search worked, but when I tried this I got a message that system restore
> cannot protect my computer.
>
> I am afraid the more a look around, the more trouble I will find.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thank you in advance
>
> jvmpdx@xxxxxxx
>
.