While XP has long since been replaced by Microsoft Vista and the upcoming Window 7, it’s still the most widely used Microsoft OS and as such we get to deal with it a lot.
We had a client with a strange issue recently which, given the number of resolutions we attempted, is worth a quick blog. Our client was seeing a blank search pane when they tried to search in Windows XP. All they saw was a blue panel and a very happy puppy. There were no text boxes or button to use, just a blank pane. They were also reporting that Windows Update and Microsoft Update were just presenting them with blank pages in IE.
We tried several thing, re-registering jscript.dll as well as reinstalling the search companion. However the solution was to (re)install Windows Script Host 5.6 from the MS site. A quick reboot and everything was back and working.
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ixing Windows XP Search Companion User Interface
1. Login as Administrator or equivalent.
2. Click Start, Run. Execute the following commands:
regsvr32 /i %windir%\srchasst\srchui.dll
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\jscript.dll
You should see the message DllRegisterServer in succeeded. for each DLL registered.
Logoff and login back (just in case the changes don’t take effect) and check if the Search Companion User Interface is displayed correctly. If it doesn’t, repair the search assistant components using Srchasst.inf.