Help – Windows Explorer Opens the Search Companion instead of the Folder
Windows XP Tips Posted by Shawn DesRochers September 5th, 2007Scenario: You know you double clicked the folder but instead of the folder opening up to access the content you get the search companion instead.
This has happened to me, and it can be frustrating when you don’t know what’s going on. You start to think your computer is possessed, but instead it’s just the folder option has been changed.
To correct this do the following.
- Go to Start -> Run – and type Regedit
- On the left hand menu select the plus signs + and navigate to the following.
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory \ shell and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Drive \ shell]
- Right click and select Edit the default value to be explorer or none.
- Logoff and back on again.
Now double click a folder you should see the content and not the search companion.
If you don’t feel comfortable editing the registry. I suggest downloading the registry fix below.
Explore Directory Registry Fix
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Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Thanks for providing a registry fix that actually worked.
I am still wondering who or what caused this “Search Companion” to pop up uninvited, so that I can prevent
this in the future.
Another thing I would like would be a complete and definitive list of any and all “user settings” in XP that can be changed by the user, and how and where they are located. Of course that’s too much to ask.
Anyway, kudos to you, and my usual thumbs-down to the
“evil microsoft programmers, lawyers and marketing guys”
that made Windows settings so cryptic, un-intuitive and
insanely unworkable, that it turns normal well-adjusted
guys like myself into raving barbarians with pie catapults.
Says:
April 18th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Starbuck’s, babe! And you deserve it.
That stupid damn hound has been making me crazy for a year, which is how long ago this Windows machine was given to me. Thank God it was never my primary machine or I would have shot holes in it.
The thing is, I figured out (finally) how to kill the dog. But every time I clicked on a folder to open it, that stinking search would open, instead. It rather defeated my having set this machine up as a single-click machine when, time after time, I had to (1) close search companion, (2) right-click the folders, and (3) then click on “Open” in the drop-down menu.
So how does a Vente Quad Whole Milk Latte sound? Tell ‘em FastBullet’s buyin’.